BEIRUT
A shadowy Sunni militant group in Lebanon claimed responsibility for a bombing in northern Iran's Qazwin city which, it said, had targeted members of Shiite Hezbollah group, according to an online statement.
"We claim the heroic operation targeting Iranians and Lebanese from [Hezbollah group] in Qazwin," Ahrar al-Sunna Baalbek group said on Twitter Tuesday night, hours after the explosion.
The group said that the bombing targeted "experts" from Iran and Hezbollah who have been working on developing weapons to be transferred to Lebanon.
On Tuesday, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that dozens were injured in a fuel warehouse explosion in western Qazwin.
Earlier in May, the group claimed the kidnapping of 3 members of Lebanon-based Hezbollah, although the latter declined to confirm or deny the kidnapping.
In late April, the group claimed responsibility for an armed attack on a Lebanese military checkpoint in the town of Arsal near the volatile borders with Syria, which injured five soldiers.
In March, another Sunni militant group, the Nussra Front, which is active in Syria and Lebanon, said that the Ahrar al-Sunna's Twitter account is being manned by "intelligence agents."
A military involvement by Hezbollah group in support of the Syrian regime has drawn condemnation from Sunni-Muslim quarters inside Lebanon.
Lebanese security forces have been struggling to prevent violence in next-door Syria from seeping into their own country, which - like Syria - suffers sectarian divide.
By Hamza Takeen
englishnews@aa.com.tr
