Rocket strike wounded 3 people

Beirut, May 26 – At least three people have been wounded by a rocket strike on the southern part of the Lebanese capital Beirut.  

 

Two rockets hit a district controlled by the Hezbollah organisation, officials and residents were quoted as saying by news agencies.

 

Tension has been high over the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

 

On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised his supporters they would prevail in Syria, where they are backing President Bashar al-Assad.

 

 

There was no immediate indication who had fired the rockets but Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said the projectiles, believed to be 107mm rockets with an 8-km (5-mile) range, had been fired from a position to the south-east.

 

Dozens of militants from Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim organisation, are said to have been killed in recent fighting alongside Syrian troops, who face a mainly Sunni Muslim opposition.

 

The fiery speech by the Hezbollah leader had raised fears that the involvement of his fighters in Syria would have repercussions in Lebanon, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Beirut.

 

The leader of Lebanon's mainly Sunni March 14th movement, former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, said that what Hezbollah was doing in Syria was "political and military suicide", our correspondent notes.

'Failed to explode'

 

Mr Assad is fighting to end a revolt against his rule which began just over two years ago and has left at least 80,000 people dead and made refugees of some 1.5 million.

 

An unnamed Lebanese security source told AFP news agency the missiles were Grad rockets, a Soviet-made weapon.

 

One rocket struck a car showroom, causing injuries and damaging vehicles,

 

Reports suggest those injured were all Syrian workers.

 

The second rocket hit a residential building. An unconfirmed report said that rocket had not exploded.

 

 

A Reuters news agency photo showed the face of a building pockmarked by what appeared to be shrapnel, while video showed shattered windows blown across a living-room.

 

Another photo showed dazed men with cuts to their legs being treated in the street by friends.

 

"This incident is probably related to the conflict in Syria," AFP's security source said.

 

The Syrian conflict has heightened Lebanon's own sectarian divisions, at times spilling into open conflict.

 

Fighting in Lebanon's northern town of Tripoli between factions supporting the opposing sides in Syria has left at least 25 people dead in the past week.

 

Inside Syria itself, opposition activists said many Hezbollah militants were killed on Saturday during fighting for the western town of Qusair, just across the border from Lebanon. BBC