A suicide bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint in Lebanon's
Daher al-Baydar in the Eastern Bekaa Valley on Friday, leaving at least 1 person killed, an ISF member, and up to 32 wounded, the health ministry said.
Consequently, security forces cordoned off the area, blocking the international highway in both directions, as civil defense teams worked on extinguishing the vehicles on fire.
Health Minister Wael Abou Faour called on all hospitals in the region to receive and treat the wounded at the expense of the ministry.
The checkpoint is situated on the main highway joining Lebanon and Syria's capitals, in an area where Sunni Muslim militants fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been active. No claim of responsibility has so far been made but identification papers were found inside the scorched vehicle belonging to Tareq Loutfi al-Jabbawi, who turned out to be alive and not present at the explosion site.
The vehicle used in the attack which was identified as a Nissan Murano SUV was being chased by security forces, sources told LBCI. Preliminary reports also said the SUV was traced from the area of Hammana towards the Bekaa and is said to have carried between 25 to 30 KG of explosive material Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr told LBCI upon inspecting the site.
This comes after the Internal Security Forces had received information on the presence of terrorist networks infiltrating the country namely for the possible assassination of Lebanon's Director General of General Security Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim who narrowly escaped the attack.
Speaking to LBCI,
Ibrahim said the explosion occurred minutes before his convoy were to arrive at the checkpoint en-route to the Bekaa, stressing that the “war raging between the Lebanese security apparatuses and terrorism will not stop.”
Ibrahim accused the Israeli Mossad of carrying out today’s explosion, adding that terrorism “has many faces...Israel being one of them.”
For his part, Internal Security Forces chief Major General Ibrahim Basbous said that the bomb-laden car was headed for Beirut, adding that the car changed its course to the Bekaa when the driver knew he was being chased.
Consequently, Prime Minister Tammam Salam called for an urgent security meeting at the Grand Serail in the few coming hours.
Earlier in the day, the ISF had also raided a popular Beirut street where it arrested several terrorist suspects in
Hamra. Fear of security breaches had also led the
Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party, to defer a conference that was set to be held later in south Beirut.
An-Nahar daily reported that Julie Abu Araj, a journalist of Lebanese origin who holds the Israeli citizenship since taking refuge in the occupied lands in 2000, revealed that she received a report from the Israeli Intelligence (Mossad), stating that armed groups, affiliated with the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, are planning to implement a major terrorist attack in Lebanon targeting a senior security official, expected to be the Director General of the Lebanese General Security Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim.
According to the newspaper, the journalist, who works for an Israeli TV as a news editor, said that the Mossad got hold of this information from its agents inside the Palestinian refugee camp in Ain al-Helweh, after detecting a series of contacts concerning plans to prepare a booby-trapped car to be detonated in Beirut.
An-Nahar daily discussed the authenticity of the said document with a senior security official from the General Security, who said that the matter is being handled in a serious manner and the necessary security measures have been taken.
Names of the injured:
The injured people in the al-Jabal hospital were identified as: Joseph Gerges, Souheil Ghandour, Soha Ghandour, Mohammad Khaled, Mohammad Zaytoune, Hanadi al-Mawla, Zaher al-Qadour, Ahmad Jomaa and Mohammad Adnan al-Said.
The injured people in al-Iman hospital were identified as: Hassan Abdel Amir Fares and his Colombian wife Patricia Lopez.
Spillover from Syria's civil war:
The stepped-up security is part of an effort to contain spillover from Syria's civil war where Hezbollah fighters have helped Assad wrest back territory from mainly Sunni insurgents over the past year.
Syria's conflict has re-aggravated sectarian strife in Lebanon where gunbattles, car bombs and rocket attacks linked to Syria have killed scores of Lebanese and revived memories of the country's own 15-year civil war that formally ended in 1990.
Sunni militants are angry with Hezbollah's intervention in Syria to bolster Assad, a fellow ally of Shi'ite Iran.
Some Lebanese Sunnis have meanwhile joined the Syrian rebels.
The Shi'ite-dominated Bekaa valley has been frequently targeted by militants. A suicide bomber killed three people there in March (among other attacks) and rockets struck a mainly Shi'ite town near the Syrian border later that month.
Positions:
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called on the Lebanese people of all sects to be highly vigilant and "maintain national unity facing the plots against the country that aim at fomenting strife."
Meanwhile, Minister of Defense Samir Moqbel said that the Lebanese army and the security apparatuses took all the needed precautions to control the situation, calling on all Lebanese people not to panic.
Also, Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil told LBCI that national unity is required "since terrorism targets all the Lebanese people," noting that the country is facing open-ended threats that require high alert on the part of all security apparatuses.
In turn, Minister Boutros Harb told LBCI that the Daher al-Baydar explosion is condemned, calling on security apparatuses to deploy efforts to preserve Lebanon’s security.
Similarly Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea condemned today’s explosion, stressing that the first step to immunize Lebanon against terrorism is to reactivate the country's state institutions.
This as Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun called on the Lebanese people to maintain calm and to show solidarity with the security apparatuses in their efforts to strike down terrorism.
For his part, MP Ziad Kadiri called for the election of a new president as soon as possible, adding that the Lebanese state institutions must not be paralyzed.
The US embassy in Lebanon also condemned the explosion, reiterating the US' full support for Lebanon in the face of terrorism.
For its part, the French embassy in Lebanon called on its citizens to limit their movements across the country.
The French embassy also deplored the explosion via its Twitter account, reiterating its support for the Lebanese security apparatuses.