Lebanon Bomb Mars Landmark Summit in Syria

Lebanon's fragile status quo suffered a new blow yesterday when a bomb killed 18 people in the northern city of Tripoli, the scene of recent sectarian clashes.

The blast came just before President Michel Suleiman left for a landmark visit to Syria - where the two neighbors finally agreed to establish formal diplomatic relations - and a day after Beirut's new national unity government won a parliamentary vote of confidence after weeks of stormy debates.

Ten of the dead were soldiers and 30 other people were wounded by the remote-controlled bomb at a bus stop in a busy shopping street. A baby and an eight-year-old shoeshine boy were among the dead. No claim of responsibility was made, but suspicion fell on Fatah al-Islam, an extremist Sunni group with links to al-Qaida that fought the Lebanese army for three months last year - they had vowed revenge against the army's then commander, who is now the president.

Suleiman condemned the "terrorist crime" before leaving for Damascus, where his talks with President Bashar al-Assad were billed as the start of a new era, following the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005 after nearly three decades of military domination of its "sister" nation. That withdrawal was triggered by outrage over the assassination of the former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, in a Beirut bomb blast in which Syria has consistently denied charges of involvement.

Yesterday's Tripoli attack was a bloody beginning for the new 30-member cabinet, led by the prime minister, Fuad Siniora, which was formed last month with the participation of the Iranian-backed Shia movement Hizbullah, after a long crisis that descended into street violence that killed 65 people in May.

Tripoli, Lebanon's second city, has been rocked by clashes between Siniora's anti-Syrian supporters and rivals loyal to Damascus. Twenty-three people were killed in sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Alawite gunmen last month.

Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker, said the timing of the Tripoli bombing reflected efforts "to prevent the improvement of Lebanese-Syrian relations".