UPDATE: AL QAEDA INSPIRED MILITANTS BOMBING KILLS 18-NORTH LEBANON

LEBANON:

Reports over associated press declared that it rises up to 18 casualties and injurred about 40 as of August 13 2008, Today at Tripoli Lebanon.

The bombing was identified to be a an ALQAEDA inspired militant seeking revenge on the local military and US Govt related issues..

SOURCE: Associated press yahoo news

A Lebanese soldier, right, inspect damaged cars, at the scene of a bomb explosion, in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Wednesday Aug. 13, 2008. A bomb exploded near a bus carrying civilians and off-duty members of the military in the northern city of Tripoli early Wednesday, killing 18 including 10 off-duty soldiers, and wounding at least 40 others, security officials said. Suspicion fell on the possibility of al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants seeking revenge on the military.(AP Photo)

The officials said the dead included 10 off-duty soldiers, from a bomb planted on the side of a main street that detonated as the bus passed. The streets were filled with people heading to work, which contributed to the many casualties, the officials said.

The blast was the first significant bombing in Lebanon in months and comes as the country is making moved to put three years of back-to-back crises behind it.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman was heading to Syria later Wednesday in the first visit there by a Lebanese president since 2005, aimed at patching up troubled ties between the neighboring countries. A day earlier, parliament approved a long-awaited national unity government between the Western-backed factions of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah.

Some officials said the Tripoli bombing may have been the work of al-Qaida-inspired militants seeking revenge for the military's assault last year on their bastion in a nearby Palestinian refugee camp, Nahr el-Bared. Hundreds were killed in the monthslong battle that ended with the militant Fatah Islam group fleeing the camp.

The army described the blast as a "terrorist attack targeting the army directly." A senior military officer told The Associated Press that at least 13 people were killed, including 11 soldiers. He spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason. The discrepancy with the higher police figures could not immediately be explained.