Bomb targets Hezbollah convoy on Masnaa Int’l Rd

The state-run news agency NNA reported on Tuesday that a bomb exploded at the junction of the Al-Azhar Mosque on the Majdel Anjar-Masnaa international road targeting a 4x4 runner with plate number identified as 259431/B. This as sources told LBCI aforementioned registration number may belong to another vehicle, namely that of a Peugeot whose owner remains unknown.                  

The NNA added that wounded persons were transported to the Chtoura hospital and were identified as Hussein Ali Deir, Fady Abdel Karim, and another person from the Al-Hujairy family.                                         

Following the explosion, Lebanese Armed Forces cordoned off the site of the blast and mentioned that the bomb was remotely detonated.                     

LBCI correspondent in Zahle, Nayef Darwish, said that the bomb was targeting a convoy for Hezbollah adding that the convoy opened fire following the explosion.                

The bomb hit the cars on a road near the border crossing with Syria and comes a week after a car bomb injured more than 50 people in a southern Beirut suburb controlled by Hezbollah.                

The group has sent combatants to Syria to fight on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad, who is facing a two-year revolt against his rule. Syrian rebel groups have threatened reprisals against Hezbollah on Lebanese soil.      

Several small roadside bombs have been set off near the Syrian border crossing in recent months.               

Lebanon, which fought its own 15-year civil war, is struggling to stay on the sidelines of its larger neighbor's bloody conflict. Car bombs and sporadic clashes between groups supporting opposite sides of Syria's war have become increasingly common.


LBCI/REUTERS