Al-Qaeda affiliate claims Lebanese army suicide attack

Saturday’s bombing was carried out in retaliation for Hezbollah’s support of Assad in Syrian civil war, group claims

By AP 23 February 2014, 10:09 am

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Lebanese emergency personnel and security forces gather around a burnt out vehicle at the site of a bomb explosion that targeted an army post on February 22, 2014 in eastern Lebanon's town of Hermel. (Photo credit: AFP/STR)

BEIRUT — An al-Qaeda linked group is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing against Lebanese soldiers that killed at least three people, the latest attack linked to the neighboring Syrian war.

The Nusra Front in Lebanon said in a statement on Twitter late Saturday that one of their followers blew himself up at an army checkpoint in the northeastern town of Hermel earlier in the day.

The group said it was targeting the Shiite-dominated town in retaliation for the Shiite militant group Hezbollah fighting alongside troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad. They didn’t mention targeting soldiers, but Lebanese extremist Sunni groups typically view the army as working in step with Hezbollah.

The Nusra Front in Lebanon appears inspired by an al-Qaeda-linked rebel brigade in Syria sharing the same name.