Lebanese Ministry of Information
Prime Minister Saad Hariri Tuesday condemned Monday night’s suspected suicide attack in Manchester, which left at least 22 dead, including children, and scores wounded.
The Premier addressed the tragedy via Twitter, expressing “Total solidarity with the people of Britain in the face of the cowardly terrorist attack in Manchester.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denounced the attack in a statement, “emphasizing its full solidarity and standing with the British people and their government in this painful crisis.”
The ministry called on the international community to educate and protect their youth from the scourge of terrorism, as “Lebanon, which is used to confronting the crime of takfiri hatred, believes that young people are the first victims of terrorism, either by physically targeting them, or by subjugating them intellectually to the darkness of the takfiri mind.”
Tawhid Party leader Wiam Wahhab tweeted: “The Manchester crime is ugly and dirty. We stand in solidarity with the British people in the face of terrorism.”
At least 22 people, including some children, were killed and 59 wounded when a suicide bomber struck as thousands of fans streamed out of a concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in the English city of Manchester Monday.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said the incident was being treated as a terrorist attack, making it the deadliest militant assault in Britain since the suicide bombings on London’s transport system in July 2005.
Police said the attacker died after detonating explosives shortly after 10:33 pm (2133 GMT) at Manchester Arena, which has the capacity to hold 21,000 people. Children were among the dead, police said.
Ariana Grande, 23, later said on Twitter: “Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don’t have words.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but U.S. officials drew parallels to the coordinated attacks in November 2015 by Islamist militants on the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris, which claimed 130 lives.
Britain is on its second-highest alert level of “severe”, meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely.
