Car explodes near Hezbollah base in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley

The driver died and two people were injured.

Security sources in Lebanon on Tuesday said an explosive-laden car blew up in the remote region of the Bekaa Valley, controlled by the country’s Shi’ite Hezbollah movement, killing the driver and wounding at least two people.

The incident occurred about 20 km from the border with Syria, whose 33-month-old conflict fuelled sectarian violence in Lebanon, including a series of car bombings which killed scores of Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

The sources said Hezbollah officials were alerted to a suspicious car after 3 a.m. and they started to follow it in two vehicles but the car exploded.

Footage broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al Manar television showed at least two damaged vehicles, one of them overturned, and several piles of blackened, twisted metal scattered over a muddy and partially snow-covered plain.

Al Manar’s correspondent said the car which blew up was carrying about 50-kg explosives and its intended target was a nearby Hezbollah base.

He said there had been casualties and that villagers in the area also reported hearing gunfire.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said ambulances were seen racing to the scene near the Bekaa villages of Sbouba and Hrabta.

According to a report, many Lebanese Sunni Muslims support the rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

The Shiite Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to support Assad, while many Sunni jihadists flocked to Syria to join the rebels.

(Reuters/NAN)