'Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon' Says All Hizbullah Areas are 'Legitimate Targets'
A group suspected of links to al-Qaida warned Friday that all areas of Lebanon where Hizbullah operates are "legitimate targets" for attack, urging Sunnis to avoid them.
"We, al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, announce that Iran's party (Hizbullah) and all its bases and... bastions are legitimate targets for us, wherever they are," the group said in a statement posted on the Internet.
The statement comes three days after the group -- which is believed to be a franchise of the Syrian al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked rebel movement -- claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack in the Beirut southern suburb of Haret Hreik that killed four people.
Tuesday's was the sixth in a string of attacks targeting Hizbullah strongholds in Lebanon since the Lebanese group acknowledged sending members into neighboring Syria to fight alongside President Bashar Assad's regime against rebels and jihadists.
Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon warned Sunnis against "approaching or residing in or near (Hizbullah's) bases, and (to) avoid gathering around its meeting points."
The group had earlier claimed a deadly car bomb attack in the heart of Hermel town in eastern Lebanon, which killed three people.
While Hizbullah is said to be the target of such attacks, they have regularly killed civilians.
The war in Syria has inflamed sectarian tensions in Lebanon, with Hizbullah backing Assad's regime and many Sunnis supporting the rebellion against him.
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