Suicide bomber kills three in Lebanon

Car bomb goes off near checkpoint • 17 others wounded in bombing in northeast • Attack claimed by Nusra Front in Lebanon

BEIRUT ( Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed two Lebanese soldiers and a civilian with a car bomb at an army checkpoint in a Hezbollah stronghold in northeast Lebanon on Saturday, security sources said. The Nusra Front in Lebanon – a terrorist Sunni group named after one of the factions fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad – said it carried out the attack, in a statement posted on Twitter and a website used by radical groups. The bomb was set off when soldiers at the checkpoint became suspicious of the man in the vehicle, the sources said. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed political and military movement, is fighting alongside Assad’s forces against predominantly Sunni rebels in a conflict that has exacerbated sectarian tensions in Lebanon. The latest bombing was the third such attack in recent weeks in Hermel, a predominantly Shi’ite area near the border with Syria, 17 people were wounded. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam. The bombing followed a suicide attack in Beirut that occurred on Wednesday, targeting the Iranian cultural center. A radical Sunni group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, had said it carried out that bombing, which killed eight people, as a reprisal for the military involvement of Hezbollah and Iran in the Syrian war. Security is one of the main challenges facing a new Lebanese government, which took office a week ago, after the country went for nearly a year without a cabinet because of political tensions – fueled by the Syria conflict. Prime Minister Tammam Salam, the highest-ranking Sunni in the administration, condemned Saturday’s attack as an act of terrorism. He called for “solidarity in confronting terrorism in all its forms.” The security forces cordoned off the area after the blast. Hezbollah is a long-standing ally of Damascus. It says it is fighting in Syria to prevent Sunni radicalism from spreading to Lebanon. Its Lebanese critics say it must pull out, saying Hezbollah’s role in Syria is provoking such attacks.