The bombing came "amid sectarian tensions" over the intervention of Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah against Sunni rebels in the Syrian civil war.[1] A month earlier a car bomb injured more than 50 people in the same district.[1] A week later two mosques were bombed in Tripoli killing over 40 and injuring hundreds. The Tripoli bombing were thought to be in retaliation for the Beirut bombing.[5]