Two rockets hit southern Beirut district: residents

Two rockets hit a Shi’ite Muslim district of southern Beirut on Sunday, residents said, wounding several people, a day after the leader of Lebanese Shi’ite militant movement Hezbollah said his group would continue fighting in Syria until victory.

One of the rockets landed in a car sales yard next to a busy road junction in the southern Chiah neighborhood and the other hit an apartment 300 meters away, wounding five people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The attack, close to Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, came just hours after its leader Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters were committed to Syria’s war “to the end of the road”.

Syria’s two-year uprising has polarized Lebanon, with Sunni Muslims supporting the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad and Shi’ite Hezbollah standing by the Syrian president.

A wave of fighting in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli between factions supporting opposing sides in the Syrian conflict has killed at least 25 people over the last week.

The bloodshed in Tripoli coincides with a fierce battle in Syria for the border town of Qusair, in which Hezbollah combatants have been fighting alongside Assad’s army to drive out Syrian rebels who are supported by foreign fighters.

Courtesy : Reuters