4 Dead, Several Hurt in Suicide Car Blast in al-Nabi Othman
A suicide car bomb attack killed four people and wounded several others late Sunday in the Bekaa town of al-Nabi Othman, state-run National News Agency reported.
“Hizbullah members knew he was about to carry out the attack, and tried to stop the vehicle. That was when the attacker detonated the vehicle," a Lebanese security source told Agence France Presse.
“The martyrs Abdul Rahman al-Qadi who hails from al-Ain and Khalil Khalil who hails from al-Fakiha detected a suspicious Grand Cherokee, so they chased it and asked its driver to stop, which prompted him to blow it up,” NNA said.
The explosion killed al-Qadi, Khalil as well as al-Nabi Othman residents Wahida Nazha and Ali Hussein Nazha and left several people wounded, the agency added.
A group calling itself the Baalbek Ahrar al-Sunna Brigade claimed responsibility on Twitter for the bombing.
"Prepare for the transfer of the battle of Yabrud into Lebanese territory," it said.
For its part, al-Nusra Front in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter, describing it as "a quick response to Iran party's bluster following its extortion of the town of Yabrud."
The attack comes hours after the Syrian army backed by Hizbullah fighters captured Yabrud, a former rebel bastion in Syria near the Lebanese border.
Hizbullah and Lebanese security forces have said many of the car bombs used in previous suicide car bombings originated in Yabrud.
The Lebanese Red Cross said the attack took place near a gas station.
A witness told LBCI TV said “the suicide bomber blew up the bomb-laden car which came from Wadi Rafeq (in Arsal's outskirts) when he was detected by members of a local party.”
Meanwhile, al-Jadeed television said Hizbullah's top official in the town of al-Ain A. Q. was killed in the bombing.
Hizbullah-dominated areas in eastern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs have suffered a series of deadly attacks, many of them suicide car blasts, since the group acknowledged sending fighters into Syria.
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