Suicide bomber kills two on Lebanon road to Damascus

BEIRUT - Agence France-Presse

A suicide bomber at a checkpoint in Lebanon appeared to have been targeting a convoy of the country's top security chief when he blew himself on Friday, a security source said. REUTERS Photo

A suicide bomber killed at least two people at a Lebanese checkpoint on the main highway from Beirut to Damascus on Friday, official media and a security source said.
      
The attack came as members of the security forces raided two hotels in central Beirut and detained at least 15 people, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
      
It was unclear whether the arrests were linked with the blast.
      
"Two people were killed and several others wounded in the Dahr al-Baydar bomb attack" east of Beirut, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
      
A security source told AFP that the attack was a suicide bombing.
      
"A suicide car bomb attack hit a checkpoint of the Internal Security Forces (ISF)," he said.
      
The NNA said the convoy of the chief of Lebanon's General Security agency, General Abbas Ibrahim, had crossed the checkpoint shortly before the blast.
      
The agency did not specify whether Ibrahim's convoy was believed to be the target of the attack.
      
But it also reported that after the bombing, security forces closed off several roads in Beirut and set up barricades around the interior ministry.
      
Fragile Lebanon has been struck by a string of attacks in the past years, with security deteriorating further as a result of the conflict in neighbouring Syria.