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A small bomb exploded in a McDonald's restaurant near Beirut Saturday, wounding five people and highlighting the rising anti-American sentiment in Lebanon due to the war in Iraq.

Police said the bomb exploded Saturday afternoon in the bathroom of a McDonald's in the northern Beirut suburb of Dora. A child was among those wounded in the blast, which also damaged the restaurant, officials said.

Police later found a car in the restaurant's parking lot that contained 121 pounds of TNT. It had not exploded because the detonator failed, police said. The explosives were dismantled.

No other details were available.

On Thursday, the U.S. Embassy urged Americans to consider leaving Lebanon, or, if staying, to exercise caution.

There have been several pro-Iraq demonstrations in front of the U.S. and British embassies in Beirut since the war began March 20.

On March 24, a small bomb went off at a British cultural center in Beirut but caused no injuries. Last week, a man stormed a British bank in Beirut with explosives strapped to his body threatening to detonate himself before surrendering to police.

In November, an American nurse was shot dead at a clinic in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon where she worked.

photo credit and caption:

Lebanese forces in front of the McDonald's restaurant in the northern Beirut suburb of Dora, Lebanon, Saturday April 5, 2003 after a bomb exploded in the bathroom at the restaurant wounded a child and causing damage to the restaurant, officials said. The incident comes days after other anti-American and British acts in Lebanon, where people are angry over the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq. (AP Photo/str)

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