Reports: Blast at Suspected Hizbullah Weapons Depot in the South

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/64867-reports-blast-at-hizbullah-weapons-depot-in-the-south

An explosion at a suspected Hizbullah munitions depot shook the outskirts of the southern town of Tairharfa at dawn Monday, causing material damage only, media reports said.

According to the reports, the blast went of in an abandoned henhouse belonging to a man from the Haidar family. They said it was used as a storage facility for arms and ammunition.

Following the explosion that went off only 200 meters away from houses and residential buildings, Hizbullah members cordoned off the area to block access to journalists, they said.

The army later blocked the roads leading to the henhouse, as military and Internal Security Forces units arrived to the scene of the blast to investigate, the reports added.

The Army Command issued a statement later on Monday confirming the blast and saying that it has tasked an army committee to work with the concerned judicial authorities to investigate the incident.

Andrea Tenenti, who is a spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said the mission was investigating the incident and would issue a statement later in the day.

The National News Agency quoted Tairharfa’s mayor Hussein Qassem Haidar as saying that the blast was the result of the explosion of a rocket left over from the last war between Israel and Hizbullah in 2006.

He urged the state to clear the areas “contaminated with cluster bombs” so that the Lebanese could invest in their agricultural lands.

A similar explosion went off in the eastern city of Baalbek on October 3.

Hizbullah said at the time that three of its members were killed at the munitions depot in Nabi Sheet where old shells and ammunition as well as ordnance from the Israeli shelling of the area were gathered.

Baalbek is a stronghold of Hizbullah similar to southern Lebanon.