Suicide car bomb kills 2 in east Lebanon near Syria border — security

BAALBEK, Lebanon — A suicide car bomb attack killed two people late Sunday in a Hizbollah-dominated area near the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley, a Lebanese security source said.

"A car bomb attack has struck the village of Al Nabi Othman, killing two people and wounding seven others," the source told AFP.

"The blast was carried out by a suicide attacker. Hizbollah members knew he was about to carry out the attack, and tried to stop the vehicle. That was when the attacker detonated the vehicle," he added.

Hizbollah-dominated areas in eastern Lebanon and southern Beirut have suffered a series of deadly attacks, many of them suicide car blasts, since the powerful Shiite movement acknowledged sending fighters into Syria to support President Bashar Assad's troops as they battle rebels.

The latest attack comes hours after the Syrian army backed by Hizbollah fighters captured Yabrud, a former rebel bastion in Syria near the Lebanese border.

Hizbollah and Lebanese security forces have said many of the car bombs used in previous suicide car bombings originated in Yabrud.