Lebanon car bomb death toll rises to 22

At least 22 people were killed and hundreds injured when a car bomb rocked a southern suburb of Lebanon's capital, authorities said Friday, raising the death toll from the blast a day earlier.

The bomb Thursday was in an area known as a stronghold of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, the Lebanese Army said.

At least 228 others were injured, the Lebanese Internal Security Forces said.

"Army units arrived immediately at the scene, enforcing a security zone within the area of explosion while military experts initiated investigations under the concerned judiciary's surveillance," the army said.

After the blast, a YouTube video surfaced in which three masked men holding weapons claimed they are part of a group responsible for the attack. They stood before a large Arabic sign containing the Islamic creed, "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."

The group, which calls itself "The brigade of Aisha, Mother of Believers," accused Hezbollah of being aggressors. Aisha is the last wife of the Prophet Muhammad and is especially revered by Sunni Muslims.

In its YouTube post, the group called Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a "pig" and said he works on behalf of Iran and Israel.

"A message: To our brothers and sisters in Lebanon: Stay away from anything to do with Iran -- whether in Beirut or outside Beirut," it said.

Hezbollah is a Shiite movement in Lebanon. Along with Shiite-dominated Iran, the group is helping Syria's government fight rebels, whose ranks are dominated by Sunnis.

CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the video or the men's claims. The U.S. Embassy in Beirut tweeted condemnations of the attack.

Civil Defense units were trying to rescue some citizens stuck inside their homes due to the fire resulting from the blast, NNA reported.

The explosion comes about a month after a car bomb injured dozens of people in the pro-Hezbollah neighborhood of Bir El Abed, located in a southern Beirut suburb.