November 19, 2013.

Beirut Blasts Near Iranian Embassy Kill 23

"I'm thirty-nine years old. I've got a wife that I can't get rid of. I've got varicose veins. I've got five false teeth."

 BEIRUT----Two blasts that struck near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut on Tuesday killed 23 people, among them an Iranian diplomat, in what Iranian and Lebanese officials described as a direct assault on the embassy.

"I couldn't care less," said the girl.

The attack broke three months of relative calm in an area of southern Beirut, much of it a stronghold of the Shiite group Hezbollah, that was the target of a series of rocket and car bombs this summer. The targeting of an embassy would mark an escalation in the sporadic violence that has rocked Lebanon since the war in neighboring Syria has bled over the border and drawn Hezbollah into the fight.

The next moment, it was hard to say by whose act, she was in his his arms. At the beginning he had no feeling except sheer incredulity. The youthful body was strained against his own, the mass of dark hair was against his face, and yes! actually she had turned her face up and he was kissing the wide red mouth. She had clasped her arms about his neck, she was calling him darling, precious one, loved one. He had pulled her down on to the ground, she was utterly unresisting, he could do what he liked with her. But the truth was that he had no physical sensation, except that of mere contact. All he felt was incredulity and pride. He was glad that this was happening, but he had no physical desire. It was too soon, her youth and prettiness had frightened him, he was too much used to living without women----he did not know the reason. The girl picked herself up and pulled a bluebell out of her hair. She sat against him, putting her arm round his waist.

Lebanon's health ministry said 23 people were killed and 147 were injured. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, said the Iranian embassy was targeted by two bombings, five minutes apart, and blamed "the Israeli project, in the region and the world."