BEIRUT: Four suicide bombers targeted a northeast Lebanon border village early Monday, killing at least five people and wounding more than a dozen others, reports said.
The National News Agency said the attackers targeted an area near a Lebanese Customs center in the town of Qaa. The five killed were in addition to the suicide bombers.
About 15 others were wounded and transferred to Batoul Hospital in Hermel for treatment. The report said the blasts occurred about 10 minutes apart.
Qaa is situated several kilometers north of Ras Baalbek, on the outskirts of which hundreds of ISIS militants are holed up. The army regularly targets their positions and convoys with artillery weapons and in airstrikes.
The area has also been the site of multiple attacks by the extremists in recent recent years on military targets.
The War Media Center, a media organization affiliated with Hezbollah, which is also battling ISIS on Ras Baalbek’s outskirts, put the casualty toll at seven dead and 14 wounded.
In a series of tweets it said the first suicide bomber infiltrated Qaa at dawn and detonated his explosive belt. As people gathered around the site of the blast a second suicide bomber then detonated his belt.
A third attacker then detonated his suicide belt as an ambulance arrived, the Center added. It said those three blasts were preceded by an explosive device being detonated on a road near the Customs office in Qaa.
LBCI put the casualty toll at four dead and 11 wounded, including civilians and army soldiers.
That report said the army has deployed to the sites of the blasts and asked citizens to remain in their homes over fears that other suicide bombers may plan further attacks.