Al-Nusra front in Lebanon claims suicide attack

Jihadists claimed a deadly suicide attack Saturday at an army checkpoint in the Lebanese town of Hermel that they indicated was in retaliation for Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria’s war, Agence France-Presse reported.

“In a blessed martyrdom [suicide] operation, the Hermel area was struck on Saturday,” the al-Nusra Front in Lebanon wrote on Twitter hours after the blast that killed two soldiers and a civilian.

The jihadist group posted photographs of children with amputated limbs, under the headline: “The crimes of the party of Iran [Hezbollah] in Syria.”

The suicide attack killed two Lebanese soldiers and a civilian with a car bomb, security sources said according to Reuters News Agency. Until Saturday, the attacks had all killed civilians.

"Paying the price in blood"

Meawhile, Lebanon’s army said it is “paying the price in blood” in the fight against “terrorism”, after a suicide car bombing killed two soldiers and a civilian, according to AFP.

“Once again, the Lebanese army is paying the price in the blood of its soldiers to fight terrorism, and to establish social peace,” the army said.

The attack had been intended to “sow fear and chaos,” the army added highlighting that all Lebanese “should stand by the military”.

Shiite movement Hezbollah also condemned Saturday’s attack, calling the perpetrators “the enemy of all the Lebanese”.

“This latest crime proves that such terrorism is not looking for causes or reasons to carry out its crimes, and that it is a danger for the whole of Lebanon,” the movement said.

The latest bombing was the third such attack in recent weeks in Hermel, a predominantly Shi'ite Muslim area near the border with Syria.

It comes just four days after three people died in a twin bomb attack targeting the cultural center of Hezbollah backer Iran.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed political and military movement, is fighting alongside Assad's forces against predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels in a conflict that has exacerbated sectarian tensions in Lebanon.

Believed to be a franchise of Syria’s al-Nusra Front, known as the arm of al-Qaeda in the war-torn country, the Lebanese jihadist group recently claimed responsibility for attacks targeting Hermel and other areas of the Lebanon dominated by Hezbollah.

(With AFP and Reuters)