Three people have been injured after a grenade exploded in the central Beirut area of Kola. It appears that the target was a cafe popular with labourers.

An hour later 200g of TNT exploded in Mamora, a Shia suburb in the south of Beirut.

The poor Shia of Lebanon and Palestinians have been the unnamed targets of recent opposition hostility in Lebanon. One anonymous Christian militia leader recently showed his arms stash to the BBC and proclaimed that he would never harm a Lebanese. But the Palestinians, they're another matter, he said.

Until now, the night-time bombings - which usually claim no victims - have been in Christian neighbourhoods.

For fifteen years Syrian troops kept the peace in Lebanon, but the last handful of soldiers will be gone by next Tuesday.