BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s leader said Friday that he is prepared to go to Syria personally to fight extremist Sunni Muslims whom he blamed for the deadliest bombing in Beirut in at least eight years, an attack that analysts said could herald a new “dark era” of sectarian bombings targeting Lebanese civilians.

The car bomb, which killed at least 21 people, was the second in a little more than a month to hit the militant Shiite movement’s staunch support base in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs. But unlike the first, which caused no deaths, the explosives-packed car that detonated Thursday evening outside a shoe store and a pastry shop appeared intended to cause maximum civilian casualties.  [Link]