Two Hurt as Blast Hits Hizbullah Convoy on Majdal Anjar-Masnaa Road
A bomb hit a Hizbullah convoy traveling towards the Lebanese border crossing with Syria, wounding two people, a security source said on Tuesday.
One vehicle was struck by the explosion near the Masnaa border crossing, the source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.
The other vehicles in the convoy escaped the bomb attack and continued along the road, the source added.
Witnesses reported hearing an explosion in the area, and said those injured were transferred to another vehicle in the convoy and taken away.
Hussein Ali Deir and Fadi Abdul Karim were injured in the blast and rushed to the Chtaura Hospital, state-run National News Agency said, noting that the two will later be transferred to the Riyaq Hospital.
The blast went off at the intersection of al-Azhar Mosque and the GMC was carrying a fake license plate, the agency added.
MTV said the bombing targeted a tinted-glass SUV as OTV said the blast hit "a convoy belonging to a political party."
According to Al-Jazeera television, the convoy consisted of two vehicles.
Security sources told OTV the blast badly damaged the targeted Chevrolet and caused severe injuries.
OTV later said that one person was killed and three others were wounded in the attack.
“The bomb on the Majdal Anjar-Masnaa road was remotely detonated and there are traces of blood on the scene,” LBCI television said.
An army patrol arrived on the scene and closed the Majdal Anjar road in the wake of the incident, according to Voice of Lebanon.
The bombing is the fourth time that a vehicle has been targeted by an explosive device in the Bekaa region, which is a stronghold of Hizbullah.
On July 7, three people were injured, including two army troops when two bombs exploded in the area.
That attack followed a similar blast on June 28, when two small bombs hit a Hizbullah convoy in the area, detonating as four cars passed, a security source said.
Hizbullah has dispatched fighters to battle alongside the Syrian regime against rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.
The party had justified its intervention in Syria by saying it was backing popular committees defending Lebanese-inhabited towns in Syrian territory near Lebanon's border from attacks by rebels and extremists. It had also admitted that its fighters were guarding Shiite holy shrines in Damascus province.
But in a speech in May, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his party will stay involved in the Syrian conflict, after having helped government forces recapture the key town of Qusayr from rebels.
"Where we need to be, we will be ... To defeat this very, very dangerous conspiracy (against Syria) we will bear any sacrifices and all the consequences," said Nasrallah.
"The alternative (to the Assad regime) is chaos and the rule of these groups," he said, referring to extremist Islamist rebel groups he said were part of an "American-Israeli-takfiri plot."
The conflict, pitting a Sunni-dominated rebel movement against Assad, has raised sectarian tensions in Lebanon and Lebanese Sunni fighters have also been killed while fighting alongside Syrian rebels.
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse
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