Three people were killed in two blasts that went off in Ein Alak near the Lebanese Christian mountain town of Bikfaya on Tuesday, a security source said. According to Reuters, an army spokesman said that the explosions hit two buses carrying passengers near the town. One of the buses was torn apart, while the other was heavily damaged.
The first bomb exploded in the first bus, causing damage and casualties, and as people rushed to the scene, a second blast ripped through a second bus that drove up behind it, a security official was quoted as saying by the AP. The 9:15 a.m. blasts occurred south of the town of Bikfaya, the ancestral home of the Gemayel family, a prominent political Christian family in Lebanon. Pierre Gemayel, a cabinet member, was assassinated last November.
Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said the targeted buses were rented to carry participants taking part in Wednesday’s commemoration ceremony of ex-Premier rafic al-Hariri’s 2005 assassination. The Voice of Lebanon radio station said the targeted buses were driving people to their work.
