Naharnet

Al-Manar: 4 Booby-Trapped Vehicles Bound for Lebanon Seized in Nabuk

Hizbullah's al-Manar television on Sunday broadcast a video showing four booby-trapped vehicles seized by the Syrian army in the key town of Nabuk, one of the last rebel-held areas in the Qalamoun region bordering Lebanon.

Al-Manar said the explosive-rigged vehicles were prepared to be used in bomb attacks in Lebanon.

The vehicles – two vans, an ambulance and a Hyundai car -- were supposed to enter the country via the Bekaa border town of Arsal, al-Manar added.

On Tuesday, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said three booby-trapped cars were found in a warehouse in Nabuk.

“Most of the booby-trapped cars that were sent to Lebanon came from Yabrud and Nabuk via Arsal,” Nasrallah added, noting that had Hizbullah refrained from intervening militarily in Syria's Qusayr and Qalamoun areas, “dozens and hundreds of explosive-rigged cars would have entered Lebanon.”

On November 22, a car rigged with hundreds of kilograms of explosives was found between the towns of Maqne and Younine in the eastern Bekaa Valley. The incident came three days after suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut, killing 25 people and wounding 147 others.

And on October 14, a booby-trapped car was found in Beirut's southern suburb of al-Maamoura, a Hizbullah stronghold. Earlier this year, two bombings rocked the Beirut southern suburbs of Bir al-Abed and Rweiss, killing and wounding dozens of people.

Syrian regime forces made gains Sunday in the town of Nabuk, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"There is fierce fighting in Nabuk between government forces, backed by Hizbullah fighters, and al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," the Observatory said.

Syrian state television said regime forces were "continuing to rake orchards in Nabuk, and have discovered a terrorist lair containing medical equipment and drugs."


Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. https://naharnet.com/stories/en/109058