Terrorism Hits Lebanon: Night Suicide Bombings Re-Strike Al-Qaa
Local Editor
Another round of suicide bombings rocked the eastern border town of al-Qaa on Monday evening, injuring eight people, only hours after four suicide bombers martyred five people and wounded 15 others in the town before dawn.
In the latest violence, three suicide bombers riding motorcycles blew themselves up in the center of the predominantly Christian town.
One struck in front of a church and the two others in front of the municipality building, the source added.
Lebanese Red Cross chief George Kettaneh said eight people were lightly wounded in the evening bombings.
"Clashes are ongoing on the outskirts of the village between the Lebanese army and armed groups," a security source said.
Military sources confirmed television that four blasts rocked al-Qaa in the evening and that no one was killed other than the attackers.
"The Airborne Regiment is staging raids in the town and the nearby areas and it urges al-Qaa's residents to stay in their homes," the sources added.
In the pre-dawn attack, five people were killed and fifteen others were wounded when four suicide bombers targeted the town.
The suicide explosions struck at 10 minute intervals.
"The first attacker knocked on one of the homes in the village, but after the resident became suspicious, he blew himself up," a military source stated.
"People began gathering at the site of the explosion and the three other suicide attackers blew themselves up," he added.
A security source had said earlier that a bomb had exploded and then "more than one suicide bomber blew themselves [up]."
The Lebanese army said in a statement that the "first explosion took off at 4:20 am where a suicide bomber detonated himself close to one of the houses in the town. Three suicide explosions followed but at different interval in a street adjacent to the first."
The statement added that the attackers were wearing explosives belts that weighed two kilograms each.
The names of those who were killed in the pre-dawn attack as Faysal Aad, Joseph Lebbos, Majeb Wehbe, Bulos al-Ahmar and George Fares.
Those wounded were transported to the Batoul Hospital in Hermel and were identified as Khalil Wehbe, Bassel Matar, Milad Matar, Shadi Mokalled, Marwan Lebbos and Dunya Shahoud.
According to reports from the village, security forces had cordoned off the site of the blasts, which lies on a main road linking the Syrian town of al-Qusayr to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.
The road cuts through a residential area in the center of al-Qaa, and the explosions took place less than 100 meters from the village church.
"Al-Qaa is the gateway to the rest of Lebanon, and here we stopped a plan for a much bigger explosion," said al-Qaa mayor Bashir Matar.
He confirmed that the second and third suicide attackers detonated their explosives "as people gathered to treat the wounded."
"We chased the fourth attacker and shot at him, and he blew himself up," Matar said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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