May 27, 2013 -- Updated 1527 GMT (2327 HKT)
Four rockets struck Lebanese strongholds of the militant group Hezbollah
on Sunday, highlighting sectarian tensions that seem to mirror the
strife in Syria. FULL STORY
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HEZBOLLAH FIGHTING IN SYRIA
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MAP: PROXY WARS?
Rockets strike Beirut suburb as sectarian strife flares in Lebanon, Syria
May 27, 2013 -- Updated 1142 GMT (1942 HKT)
Lebanese men inspect destroyed cars after two rockets exploded in Shiah, a southern suburb of Beirut, on Sunday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Two rockets also fall on a Hezbollah stronghold in northern Lebanon
- Two rockets injure at least five people, including three Syrians, in the Beirut suburb of Dahiye
- Hezbollah has declared military support for Syria's government
- The Lebanese interior minister calls his country's sectarian tensions "intolerable"
The first two struck a predominately Shiite Beirut suburb of Dahiye, Lebanon's state news agency reported.
One of the rockets
injured five people, including three Syrians, the National News Agency
reported. The number of casualties from the second one was not
immediately known.
Two more rockets pounded a
residential area in the northern city of al-Hermel, also a Shiite
neighborhood, causing property damage, NNA reported.
Adding fuel to the fire in Syria
Syrian forces pound rebel stronghold
Al-Assad: I'll consider talks, but ...
Syrian rebels have
shelled al-Hermel in the past, saying they are responding to military
support of the Syrian regime by Hezbollah, which is a Shiite militia.
Authorities have not identified any suspects in Sunday's attacks.
Concerns that sectarian
strife in Syria may trigger ethnic conflict within Lebanon's borders
escalated Saturday, when Hezbollah declared it is going to war in Syria
on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Lebanon's caretaker
interior minister reflected the anxiety when he visited the site of
Sunday's attack, which he called "an act of sabotage to create
tensions."
"God willing, the events
in Syria will not spill over into Lebanon, and we hope that we will
have more men with more reason because we just went over 40 years of
civil war," Marwan Charbel told NNA.
At the same time, he emphasized that he does not know who is to blame for the attack.
Like Syria, Lebanon's population is divided into religious and ethnic factions, some bitterly at odds with each other.
Hezbollah is one of the
largest and best armed factions. It draws most of its foreign support
from Shiite-dominated Iran and from the al-Assad government in Syria,
which the U.S. accuses of acting as a conduit for Tehran's weapons
deliveries.
His fighters have
participated unofficially in towns close to Lebanon's border alongside
Syrian government troops in battles against al-Assad's opponents. On
Saturday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah promised al-Assad
victory with Hezbollah's help.
Nasrallah also called
for his opponents in Lebanon to fight against Hezbollah on Syrian soil,
hoping to divert armed conflict away from Lebanon and into the active
battle field next door.
"We are fighting in
Syria, so let us fight there instead and deflect Lebanon from the
conflict, the fighting, the confrontations and the bloodshed," he said.
Charbel acknowledged the dangerous potential in Lebanon's rising tensions.
"We are now living in an intolerable environment."
CNN's Nada Husseini in Beirut contributed to this report.
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