Two rockets have hit a district in the southern part of Lebanon’s capital, wounding at least five people.
Initial reports said one of the rockets landed in the Mar Mikhael district just south of the capital on Sunday, while the second fell on a car exhibit on the street.
Marwan Sharbel, the country’s interior minister, said the rockets were fired from the south east of the area but that it was too early to know who fired them.
Tensions have been running high in Lebanon as Syrian rebels have threatened to retaliate against Hezbollah group for sending fighters to assist the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the battle to end a two-year revolt against his rule.
Sunday’s attack came a day after a speech by Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, in which he committed to fighting in Syria’s conflict.
Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, said security forces surrounded the area but have yet to provide more information on the attack.
“The attack does not come as a surprise and security forces had already been heavily deployed in the area in anticipation for any violence,” she said.
Direct involvement in war
On Saturday, Hezbollah leader said his fighters were battling in Syria against Islamic radicals who posed a danger to Lebanon, and pledged that his group would not allow Syrian rebels to control areas along the Lebanese border.
His speech offered the clearest public confirmation yet that the Iranian-backed group was directly involved in Syria’s war.
Hezbollah initially tried to play down its involvement, but could no longer do so after dozens of its fighters were killed in the town and buried in large funerals in Lebanon.
He spoke as battles raged in the Syrian border city of Qusair under fire for a seventh straight day as government forces backed by the Hezbollah fighters battled to drive out Syrian rebels.
At least 40 people were reported killed on Saturday in what residents told Al Jazeera was the worst fighting they had seen since the start of the civil war.
Nasrallah vowed “victory” in Syria, warning that the fall of the Damascus regime would plunge the Middle East into a “dark period”.
In a televised address, Nasrallah pledged that Hezbollah would turn the tide of the conflict in President Bashar al-Assad’s favour, and stay as long as necessary to do so.
“We will continue this road until the end, we will take the responsibility and we will make all the sacrifices,” he said. “We will be victorious.”
