5 rockets landed in Hezbollah strong in East Lebanon

Five rockets landed in  the  Hezbollah stronghold  of  of Hermel in the  Bekaa  region of East Lebanon on Sunday, a security source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

“Two rockets landed in the town of Hermel, in an area between the Mabarrat teaching association and the Masharii al-Qaa area, causing no casualties,” the source said.

“Another three rockets have landed  later in the outskirts of Hermel,” the source added

It was not immediately clear whether the rockets were launched from inside Lebanon or from across the border in strife-torn Syria, said the source, although  National News Agency said earlier they were fired from Syrian territory.

This latest rocket attack comes just three days after a powerful car bombing rocked   Hezbollah’s heartland  of Dhahieh in southern Beirut killed 27 people and wounded around 300 others.

“I will personally go  to Syria if it is necessary in the battle against the Takfiris (radical Sunni Muslims), Hezbollah and I will go to Syria” to fight rebels trying to oust the Damascus regime, Hezbollah chief Sheikh  Hassan Nasrallah said in a defiant speech last Friday, accusing the Takfiris of being behind the deadly blast.

Takfiris in both Sunni and Shiite sects consider people who do not share their religious views as infidels.

Responding to Nasrallah’s speech , former PM Saad Hariri said that Hezbollah was defining terrorism based on its own interests . “It is good the Secretary General of Hezbollah is enthusiastic over combating terrorism, Hariri said but we still don’t understand, (referring to the deadly 2007 battles between the Lebanese Army and the Islamist Fatah al-Islam group in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared of north Lebanon) why he drew a red line in Nahr al-Bared. Wasn’t it takfiri weapons fighting the army then?.”

Fatah al-Islam is a radical extremist Sunni Islamist group that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda. During its 2007 war with the Lebanese army it was led by Shaker al-Abssi who was a former officer in the Syrian army . Fatah al-Islam has close ties to the Syrian regime and much of its leadership is made up of Syrian officers, according to Al Hayat newspaper

Syrian opposition groups have threatened to attack Hezbollah’s bastions and centers in the Bekaa region in response to the party’s military intervention in Syria.

The Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group has been widely criticized by Lebanese and Arab leaders for supporting the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad in its sectarian war against the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels who are trying to overthrow the 40 year old dictatorship. Thousands of Hezbollah fighters are fighting in Syria alongside the forces loyal to Assad and hundreds of them have been brought in coffins for burial in Lebanon.