A booby-trapped vehicle exploded on Tuesday at a parking lot near a Hizbullah religious center in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the party’s al-Manar TV reported.
Al-Manar said the blast went off near Islamic Cooperation Center in the area of Bir al-Abed.
The TV station added 18 people were injured in the explosion.
But the state-run National News Agency said the blast caused deaths although it did not specify the number.
TV footage showed black smoke billowing into the sky and firefighters rushing to the area to douse a fire that erupted after the blast.
The footage also showed dozens of vehicles going up in flames.
The force of the blast caused damages to several nearby residential buildings, including cracks in their walls.
Some Syrian rebel groups have threatened to strike in Lebanon after Hizbullah joined Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops in their battle against opposition fighters.
In May, two rockets slammed into a Hizbullah stronghold in south Beirut, wounding four people. The rockets struck hours after Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed in a speech to help propel Assad to victory in Syria’s civil war.
Source:Agencies
