Blast in Arsal Targets Meeting of Lebanon’s Qalamoun Scholars, Kills 5 at Least

Local Editor

Lebanon: Arsal

At least five people were killed and others were wounded in an explosion that went off in the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal on the border with Syria on Thursday, a security source told Al-Manar TV reporter.

Local news networks stated that chairman of Qalamoun Muslim Scholars Committee, Sheikh Othman Mansour, was killed in the bombing.

Field reporter in Hermel said Arsal explosion was due to an IED [improvised explosive device] placed in a commercial shop for Rayed Family, near the municipal building, the National News agency reported.

"There was an explosion inside the town of Arsal. We don't know what caused it, but there are a number of dead or wounded," a security source told AFP.

Six people were also wounded in the bombing that occurred outside the office of a local council of Muslim scholars, the source added.

He could not specify how many were killed in the town, the enclave that hosts many Syrian refugees where operatives of Al-Nusra Front terrorist group and other takfiri organizations take refuge from the blows of Hezbollah fighters and the Syrian army forces.