Lebanon attack: Suicide bombers strike village of Qaa
Lebanese forces secure the area following the suicide bomb attacks in Qaa.
Al Jazeera News :
At least five people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded in suicide bombing attacks in northeastern Lebanon near the border with Syria, officials and a witness have said.
Four suicide bombers blew themselves up early on Monday in the village of Qaa in Bekaa valley, the state-run Lebanese News Agency reported.
A villager told Al Jazeera that a local became suspicious of the group of men passing through Qaa after confronting them near his house.
“There was a fight and one of the men detonated a bomb,” Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from the capital, Beirut, said. “There was a series of explosions afterwards.”
Qaa is a predominantly Christian village, located just a few kilometeres off a border checkpoint.
The Lebabanese Red Cross confirmed the death toll, adding that around 15 people were wounded, four of them in serious condition.
Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV had said six people were killed in the attack and 19 people wounded.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Al-Manar blamed it on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known, as ISIS).
“ISIL has been positioned in the mountains above Qaa for the last several years and the Lebanese army as well as Hezbollah have been fighting ISIL [in Syria],” Al Jazeera’s Ghoneim said.
She added that if ISIL’s involvement was confirmed, it would mark the first time the armed group would have targeted a Christian village in Lebanon.
“Either way, it is sure that it will raise security concerns here in the country.”
At least five people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded in suicide bombing attacks in northeastern Lebanon near the border with Syria, officials and a witness have said.
Four suicide bombers blew themselves up early on Monday in the village of Qaa in Bekaa valley, the state-run Lebanese News Agency reported.
A villager told Al Jazeera that a local became suspicious of the group of men passing through Qaa after confronting them near his house.
“There was a fight and one of the men detonated a bomb,” Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from the capital, Beirut, said. “There was a series of explosions afterwards.”
Qaa is a predominantly Christian village, located just a few kilometeres off a border checkpoint.
The Lebabanese Red Cross confirmed the death toll, adding that around 15 people were wounded, four of them in serious condition.
Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV had said six people were killed in the attack and 19 people wounded.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Al-Manar blamed it on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known, as ISIS).
“ISIL has been positioned in the mountains above Qaa for the last several years and the Lebanese army as well as Hezbollah have been fighting ISIL [in Syria],” Al Jazeera’s Ghoneim said.
She added that if ISIL’s involvement was confirmed, it would mark the first time the armed group would have targeted a Christian village in Lebanon.
“Either way, it is sure that it will raise security concerns here in the country.”
