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| Hezbollah Beirut heartland hit as Syria war rages | | |
BEIRUT: Two rockets exploded in the Hezbollah heartland of Beirut's Shia southern suburbs Sunday, wounding four people, hours after the group vowed to fight until victory for Syria's regime, a Lebanese security source said.
"Two Grad rockets hit the southern suburbs of Beirut. One rocket struck a car showroom where four people were wounded and vehicles were damaged," the source told AFP.
It was the first time the Lebanese capital's mainly Shia southern suburbs have been targeted during the two-year-old conflict in neighbouring Syria, where Hezbollah has thrown its military might into the regime's fight against rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Sunday's blasts came just hours after Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Shia militant movement, vowed "victory" in Syria.
"I say to all the honourable people, to the mujahedeen, to the heroes: I have always promised you a victory and now I pledge to you a new one" in Syria, he said in a speech late Saturday marking the 13th anniversary of Israel's military withdrawal from Lebanon.
"This battle is ours ... and I promise you victory," he said.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah would always stand by its ally Assad and his regime, stressing that its own interests were at stake.
Both rockets hit the Al-Shayyah area of Beirut.
The security source said the four wounded in the showroom were all Syrian workers. An AFP journalist said the second rocket hit an apartment block and caused widespread damage but no casualties.
"This incident is probably related to the conflict in Syria," the security source said.
He said the rockets were fired from Aitat in the Mount Lebanon area, some 13 kilometres (eight miles) southeast of where they hit.
The army said it found two abandoned rocket launchers in woods near Aitat.
"The people will not be intimidated by such acts and are determined to defend the resistance (Hezbollah) ... We will prevent all sectarian dissent," Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar told the group's Al-Manar television channel.
President Michel Sleiman said the attack's perpetrators were "terrorists and vandals who do not want peace and stability for Lebanon and the Lebanese."
Meanwhile, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told journalists in Abu Dhabi that France "very strongly condemns" the incident and stressed it was crucial to "avoid the war in Syria becoming a war in Lebanon."
Al-Manar also broadcast live from Al-Shayyah, showing security forces and interior minister Marwan Charbel visiting the suburb.
"This is an act of sabotage," Charbel told reporters at the scene, adding that it was too soon to say who launched the attacks.
The fighting in Syria has already spilled over into Lebanon's second city, the northern port of Tripoli, where 31 people have been killed and 212 wounded in a week of clashes between pro-Assad Alawites and pro-rebel Sunni Muslims.
Most of the fighting in Tripoli has been between residents of the Sunni district of Bab el-Tebbaneh and Alawite residents of Jabal Mohsen.
The rebels battling the Syrian regime are mainly Sunnis, while Assad belongs to the Alawite sect which is an offshoot of Shia Islam.
"Syria is the rear guard of the resistance (Hezbollah's fight with Israel), its backbone, and the resistance cannot stay with its arms folded when its rear guard is exposed," Nasrallah said in his speech. "We are idiots if we do not act," added the Hezbollah chief.
The intervention of hundreds of Hezbollah fighters has given Assad the upper hand in Qusair, a strategic central town in Syria across the border with Lebanon, that had been in rebel hands.
Syrian forces launched an assault on Qusair on May 19 but are still meeting with fierce resistance from the rebels, as the town provides an important supply line for arms and volunteers from Lebanon. Qusair is a key prize for Assad's forces because of its location between Damascus and the Alawite Mediterranean coast. |
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