Dearborn Stunned as 3 Residents Killed in Beirut Blasts

Updated at 7 p.m.

Three Dearborn residents were killed when a blast ripped through a Beirut suburb during rush hour Thursday, killing 43 people and injuring scores more.

Among the casualties is Leila Mazloum, a mother of four who moved to Dearborn four months ago after receiving her green card, but was in Lebanon visiting her husband and children, who were expected to join her in the United States in a few months, according to media reports.

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Also killed were Dearborn residents Leila Talib and her husband, Hussein Mustafa, The Detroit News said.

The Arab American News said Mazloum had returned to Lebanon for three days to bring her family, who also had received permanent residency papers, to the United States. The family also included a 13-year-old who was with her mother when she was killed, and two other sons, ages 23 and 16.

News of the local casualties numbed Dearborn, where about 40 percent of residents are Arab Americans. Members of Mazloum’s family said they’ve been concerned about the unrest in Lebanon, but didn’t imagine they would be so directly affected.

“I’m just not able to process it,” Zeinab Tlais, who is Mazloum’s daughter-in-law, told WXYZ-TV. “I’m just in total shock of all of this.”

The Dearborn-based Islamic Center of America held a commemorative service in the three victims’ honor Friday afternoon, and a candlelight vigil was planned for Friday evening.

Kassem Allie, executive director of the center, said all three victims will most likely be buried in their native Lebanon.

Twin explosions just minutes apart tore through Burj al-Barajneh, a stronghold of the militant Shiite Hezbollah group, during rush hour. In addition to the 43 people who were killed, another 239 were injured.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings, the worst attack to hit the Lebanese capital in years.