A car bomb damaged a US diplomatic car in Beirut today, killing at least three people and wounding 16, and the US State Department said no Americans died in the blast.
The bomb sent a column of smoke into the sky, tore masonry from buildings and destroyed at least six cars in a Christian suburb north of Beirut, as well as damaging the armoured four-wheel-drive embassy car.
The Lebanese government put the death toll at three but the US State Department said the bomb killed four Beirut residents. None worked for the embassy.
"There were no American diplomats or American citizens in the car at the time," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. A Lebanese national working for the US embassy and a driver were in the car when it was attacked, and the driver was slightly wounded, he said. An American passer-by was also hurt.
Lebanese and US security officials were at the scene, where rescue workers covered a corpse with plastic sheeting. Pools of blood covered the road.
Two of the dead were Lebanese and the third a Syrian, security sources said.