BEIRUT/QAA, Lebanon: The Lebanese government warned on Tuesday of a heightened terrorist threat after eight suicide bombers targeted a Christian village at the border with Syria, the latest spillover of its conflict into Lebanon.
The village of Qaa was targeted on Monday in two waves of suicide attacks that killed five people. The first group of bombers attacked before dawn and the second later at night, two of them blowing themselves up near a church.
Security officials believe Islamic State militants were behind the attack. There has been no claim of responsibility. [ Hezbollah is accusing ISIS.]
In reference to the number of attackers, the Lebanese government said the attack and the "unfamiliar way" it was carried out represented a new phase of "confrontation between the Lebanese state and evil terrorism".
Prime Minister Tammam Salam "expressed his fear that what happened in Qaa is the start f a new wave of terrorist operations in different areas of Lebanon," Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said in televised comments after a cabinet meeting.
Sunni Islamist militants have repeatedly struck in Lebanon since the eruption of the war in neighbouring Syria, where the powerful Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah is fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, speaking from Qaa, said most of the attackers had come from inside Syria, and not refugee camps hosting Syrian refugees who number more than 1 million in Lebanon according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
Local authorities imposed curfews on Syrian refugees in the area following the attacks. The Lebanese army said it had mounted dawn raids on Syrian refugee camps, detaining 103 people for being illegally present in the country.
The majority of Syrian refugees have no legal status in Lebanon due to the complications and costs of obtaining or renewing residency rights under rules imposed by the Lebanese government, aid agencies say.
(Reporting by Tom Perry, Laila Bassam, Issam Abdullah; Editing by Dominic Evans)
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/lebanon-fears-new-terror/2912148.html
2 comments:
Hope I am wrong but if our western society keeps on the current trajectory,we Catholics in the West may be the next to be persecuted.Please pray for all Catholics and Orthodox in Asia Minor and the Arabian Peninsula.
Isn't it peculiar how ISIS doesn't attack Israel?
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