Roadside Bomb Scare in Eastern Lebanon
The Lebanese army blew up on Monday a suitcase placed on the side of a road in the eastern Bekaa Valley on suspicion that it contained explosives.
The bag was discovered on the Qob Elias road.
The army blocked the street and called for an explosives expert, who decided to blow up the suitcase, which turned out to be empty.
The incident comes as the country is witnessing rising sectarian tension linked to the war in neighboring Syria.
On Saturday, a suicide car bomber targeted a checkpoint manned by Hizbullah in the Bekaa town of Khreibeh.
The last such bombing occurred in February. Since July 2013, scores of people have been killed in more than a dozen suicide car bombings that have rocked the country.
Sunni militants, including the Islamic State group, have been trying to punish the Iranian-backed Hizbullah because its fighters are battling alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
They have claimed responsibility for previous bombings in Lebanon that have targeted Shiite communities. But they have also increasingly targeted the Lebanese army itself.
IS and and al-Nusra Front have killed three soldiers taken captive from the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.
They have threatened to kill more if the Lebanese authorities did not meet their demands.
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