DHAKA: A suicide bomber has killed two Lebanese soldiers and a civilian with a car bomb near an army checkpoint in northeast Lebanese city of Hermel, security sources have said.

The latest bombing, in a country destabilised by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, was the third such attack in recent weeks in Hermel, a predominantly Shia Muslim area of Lebanon near the border with Syria.

The bomb was set off when soldiers at the checkpoint became suspicious of the man in the vehicle, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, the sources said.

More than a dozen others were injured of which five are from the army and 10 are civilians.

The explosion happened at Assi Bridge near entrance of Hermel city.

Jabhat al-Nusra claims attack

Jabhat al-Nusra in Lebanon has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam said: "The attack on the military establishment exceeds a normal crime. We urge everybody to unite."

It follows a suicide bombing of the Iranian cultural centre in Beirut that killed eight people on Wednesday.

That attack was claimed by an armed Sunni group which said it carried out the bombing as a reprisal for the military involvement of Shia Hezbollah group and Iran in the war in neighbouring Syria.

Hermel in the Bekaa Valley is a stronghold of the Hezbollah. A series of attacks have struck Shia areas in Lebanon over the past months, killing and wounding scores of people.

A blast in the town earlier this month killed at least three people.

Source: Al Jazeera

BDST:  1102 HRS, FEB 23, 2014