A policeman secures the area as firefighters put out a fire at Duroy hotel following a bomb attack in Raouche, in western Beirut on June 25, 2014
Paris:
The United States on Thursday condemned a suicide bombing at a Beirut hotel and voiced hopes that it did not signal a return to spiralling violence in Lebanon.
A man blew himself up at Beirut's Duroy Hotel on Wednesday as security forces stormed his room, killing himself and wounding 10 other people, a senior Lebanese official said.
A Saudi accomplice of the suicide bomber was wounded in the blast at the four-star establishment mainly frequented by Gulf Arab tourists, and has been detained.
The issue was raised in talks in Paris between US Secretary of State John Kerry and former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri.
"It's all very sensitive that this not be symptomatic," a senior State Department official said after the talks, adding "we don't want to go back to that."
It was the third suicide bombing this week in Lebanon, which has been rocked by years of unrest in the past amid the political turmoil lingering after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
"We strongly condemned the bombing and are hoping that the perpetrators are brought to justice," the US official said.
There was obviously "concern for spillover from Syria and Iraq."
"That's yet another reason why we have been in a very material way supportive of assisting the Lebanese armed forces and internal security forces."
Kerry and Hariri, who has lived outside Lebanon since 2011 for security reasons, had also discussed the need to quickly form a government in Lebanon.
The country has been without a president since May 25, when Michel Sleiman's mandate expired, because the two rival blocs that dominate politics have been unable to agree on a successor.
Lebanon, which was dominated by Syria for nearly 30 years until 2005, is sharply divided into pro- and anti-Damascus camps.
Shiite-led Hezbollah and its allies back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Hariri's Sunni-led March 14 coalition supports the revolt battling to oust him.
A man blew himself up at Beirut's Duroy Hotel on Wednesday as security forces stormed his room, killing himself and wounding 10 other people, a senior Lebanese official said.
A Saudi accomplice of the suicide bomber was wounded in the blast at the four-star establishment mainly frequented by Gulf Arab tourists, and has been detained.
The issue was raised in talks in Paris between US Secretary of State John Kerry and former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri.
"It's all very sensitive that this not be symptomatic," a senior State Department official said after the talks, adding "we don't want to go back to that."
It was the third suicide bombing this week in Lebanon, which has been rocked by years of unrest in the past amid the political turmoil lingering after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
"We strongly condemned the bombing and are hoping that the perpetrators are brought to justice," the US official said.
There was obviously "concern for spillover from Syria and Iraq."
"That's yet another reason why we have been in a very material way supportive of assisting the Lebanese armed forces and internal security forces."
Kerry and Hariri, who has lived outside Lebanon since 2011 for security reasons, had also discussed the need to quickly form a government in Lebanon.
The country has been without a president since May 25, when Michel Sleiman's mandate expired, because the two rival blocs that dominate politics have been unable to agree on a successor.
Lebanon, which was dominated by Syria for nearly 30 years until 2005, is sharply divided into pro- and anti-Damascus camps.
Shiite-led Hezbollah and its allies back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Hariri's Sunni-led March 14 coalition supports the revolt battling to oust him.
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