Explosion rocks Shia suburb in Beirut

A car bomb has wounded several people in Dahiyeh in southern Lebanon, a stronghold for the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah group.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Samaha, reporting from Beirut said that the blast occurred in the parking lot of a supermarket in the Bir el Abed neighbourhood on Tuesday.
It is understood that the attack was in response to Hezbollah’s involvement in the war in neighbouring Syria, where its fighters are battling against takfiri terrorists trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties. Reuters news agency reported medics as saying that several people had died. However, no deaths had been confirmed by officials.
A Hezbollah source said that more than 20 people were wounded, while the Red Cross said 15 people had been injured.
Samaha said that the area was generally a busy part of the city, but it was even more crowded on Tuesday because it was the last day before Ramadan.
Rockets fired
On Monday, two rockets fired from inside Syria hit the eastern Lebanese city of Hermel, a majority Shia Hezbollah bastion in the Bekaa valley, without causing casualties, a security source told the AFP news agency.
“Rockets fired from Syrian territory landed this afternoon on the city of Hermel, causing no injuries,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Eastern Lebanon has seen repeated rocket attacks in recent weeks.
Officially neutral in Syria’s conflict, Lebanon is deeply divided into pro- and anti-Assad camps.
Hezbollah and its allies back Assad, while the Syrian rebels are seeking his removal.