4 September 2010 / AP, BEIRUT
Explosions ripped through a building Friday in southern Lebanon that might have been used to store weapons by the militant group Hezbollah, security officials said.
It was not clear whether there were any casualties from the blasts, which set off a large fire, the officials said. Rescue crews responded to the scene. The three-story building is in the Hezbollah-dominated village of Shehabiyeh, part of a volatile border zone south of the Litani River in which Hezbollah has been banned from having weapons under a UN resolution that ended the 2006 war between the militant group and Israel. The area is patrolled by UN troops and Lebanese soldiers and has been largely peaceful since the war, but there have been a number of mysterious explosions in the past year at buildings suspected of housing Hezbollah arms caches.It was not clear what caused Friday’s blasts, but one of the officials said it might have been triggered by an electrical short circuit setting off secret Hezbollah munitions. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are barred by military regulations from speaking to journalists.
