BEIRUT (AFP) ― Four people were wounded on Sunday when two rockets exploded in the Shiite-majority Hezbollah heartland of south Beirut, 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 southern suburbs have been targeted during the two-year-old conflict in neighboring 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 Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed “victory” in Syria.
“I say to all the honorable 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 at a ceremony 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 kilometers southeast of where they hit. “The army is on the way to this area to investigate,” he said.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel broadcast live from Al-Shayyah in the capital, showing security forces and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel arriving at the scene of the blasts.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
