January Hermel Blast Death Toll Rises to Four

The death toll from a suicide bombing that targeted the northeastern town of Hermel on January 16 has risen to four, the state-run National News Agency reported on Monday.

According to the news agency, Mohammed Issa, who was critically injured in the bombing, succumbed to his wounds early on Monday.

Issa was submitted to Geitaoui hospital.

Issa's family will lay his body to rest in his hometown of al-Kweikh in Hermel at 3:00 p.m.

The car bombing took place outside the main government administration building in Hermel, an attack that was claimed by the Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, a group named after al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, which has emerged recently.

On Saturday, a suicide bombing hit the area anew after a suicide bomber set explosives inside a Grand Cherokee inside a petrol station.

The Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon claimed the attack on Twitter, saying it was a suicide bombing in response to Hizbullah's involvement in Syria.

It was the seventh attack to target Hizbullah in Lebanon since mid-2013, when the group sent men to Syria to fight alongside President Bashar Assad's troops against mainly Sunni rebel groups.

The petrol station is part of a charitable network set up by Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a leading Shiite cleric and Hizbullah spiritual guide who died in 2010.

The outbreak of the conflict in Syria in March 2011 has inflamed sectarian tensions in Lebanon.