Bomb Rips Through Car in Arsal, Several Injured

An explosive device ripped through a car in the northeastern border town of Arsal on Monday, leaving the owner and several people wounded.

“The car exploded near the old municipality building and the Grand Mosque inside the town of Arsal,” state-run National News Agency reported.

“The bomb was placed under the driver's seat of a GMC Yukon SUV owned by Hassan Ezzeddine, aka al-Mukahal,” NNA added.

The blast “severed Ezzeddine's feet and he was rushed to hospital in an ambulance,” the agency said.

An army statement confirmed that the bomb went off inside the car, noting that “investigations are underway to unveil the incident's circumstances.”

Future TV said the blast went off in the al-Bustan neighborhood.

Arsal deputy municipal chief Mohammed al-Fleiti told the TV network that the area is inhabited by members of the Ezzeddine family.

Several TV networks said “personal motives” were behind the incident.

Meanwhile, al-Jadeed television said Ezzeddine is “a member of the armed groups,” in an apparent reference to the extremist al-Nusra Front and Islamic State groups which have positions in the town's outskirts and in the nearby Syrian towns.

“He had been detained in the past on charges of attacking the (Lebanese) army,” al-Jadeed added.

A soldier was killed and two others were wounded last week when a bomb went off as they were approaching it to defuse it on the outskirts of Arsal.

In recent months, the army repelled several infiltration attempts by Islamist militants who tried to advance into the town.

Jihadists from al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra and the IS group are entrenched on the outskirts of Arsal on the porous Syrian-Lebanese border.

They engaged in a bloody fighting with the Lebanese army in August and took with them hostages from the military and police.

Y.R.