NOW
June 21, 201

Overnight blast outside Beirut caused by rocket

An unfired rocket installed on a launcher was discovered Friday afternoon in the mountains northeast of Beirut as reports emerged that another rocket launched from the area was behind the loud blast that rocked Aley’s Kahale overnight.

Voice of Lebanon (100.5) radio reported that the Lebanese army set up a security cordon in Mount Lebanon’s Ballouneh after two launchers were uncovered and prevented press from entering the area.

The station added that eyewitnesses in the town saw a fiery streak across the sky around 12:40 a.m. Friday, around the same time a huge blast reverberated in the Aley area and was heard as far away as the southern and eastern suburbs of Beirut.

LBC reported that a technical malfunction prevented one of the rockets from launching, while a rocket hit electricity cables near the Jamhour power plant outside Kahale.

Al-Manar TV reported that the rockets that were found were Grad rockets and functioned wirelessly through an electrical launcher.

Al-Manar also said that the rocket launchers were found 15 meters away from the highway.

Meanwhile, An-Nahar cited security sources as saying that the rockets were aimed for the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in South Beirut.

OTV reported Friday morning that shrapnel was discovered between Araya and Kahale.

Two rockets were fired on May 26 into the Shiyyah area of Dahiyeh, the morning after Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah promised his party’s supporters that the Shiite movement would emerge victorious in Syria.