Three Injured as Rockets Fall on Hermel, One on Army Post
Several rockets fired from the Lebanese-Syrian border area struck the Hermel region on Tuesday, leaving three people injured, including two soldiers.
"Starting 4:30 p.m. this afternoon, six rockets fired from the Syrian side of the border landed in the town of Hermel, one of them inside an army barracks in the al-Dawra neighborhood, leaving two soldiers lightly wounded and causing material damage," an army statement said.
"Army forces have started inspecting the targeted locations to accurately identify the source and types of the rockets while the appropriate measures have been taken on the ground," it added.
Shortly after the shelling, the Marwan Hadid Brigades, an Islamist rebel group operating in Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack in a Twitter message, saying it was carried out in collaboration with the “al-Nusra Front in Lebanon.”
“The al-Nusra Front in Lebanon and the Marwan Hadid Brigades announce that they have targeted the strongholds of Iran's party in the Lebanese area of Hermel with 10 Grad rockets, in response to the entry of the Iranian party into Syria and the continued killing and detention of Sunni youths in Lebanon,” the Brigades said in another statement.
“God willing, operations will continue against Iran and its party in Syria and Lebanon,” the group warned.
State-run National News Agency said “two rockets hit residential areas in Hermel during clashes inside Syria.”
It later said the two rockets were fired from the Eastern Lebanon Mountain Range on the border with Syria, with one of them hitting a Lebanese military post and leaving several soldiers lightly wounded.
The other rocket landed in central Hermel, injuring a man and causing damage to shops, it said.
The rocket attack comes only hours after a booby-trapped car exploded near a Hizbullah post in the northern Baalbek town of Sbouba, south of Hermel.
Hermel and other Bekaa areas were hit by several rockets in recent months, with Syrian rebels claiming most of the attacks, which they say are in retaliation to Hizbullah's military intervention in Syria.
President Michel Suleiman has several times stressed the need to take the necessary measures to protect Lebanese citizens and towns and respond to the sources of gunfire.
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