Lebanon army launches rockets search

Military officials say the explosions were caused by "two 107 mm rockets" and that they searching the area they may have come from.

Lebanon's army has launched a search operation, hours after two rockets fired from an unknown location exploded outside its presidential palace.

The attack has come amid high tensions fanned by the conflict in neighbouring Syria, now in its third year.

"After the explosions ... in the area of Yarzeh (in Baabda east of Beirut), the army has launched a search operation in the area," army officials said on Friday.

The military said the explosions were caused by "two 107 mm rockets" and that it is "carrying out a search operation in the areas from which they might have been launched".

An AFP photographer at the scene said one of the two rockets struck about 100 metres from the presidential palace in Baabda, a high-security area also home to several embassies.

President Michel Sleiman appealed for calm.

"However many rocket messages are sent to us, no one can change the foundations of our patriotism or our belief in freedom and truth," Sleiman said in a statement.

"Our belief in national unity will push away from our country the impact of what is happening around us in the region," the president added, in a reference to Syria.

Although Lebanon is officially neutral in Syria's war, the small Mediterranean country is split over the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

The powerful Shi'ite movement Hezbollah has openly sent fighters to battle alongside the Syrian regime against rebels trying to overthrow Assad.

But many Sunnis back the Sunni-led Syrian opposition.

In June, a Grad rocket fired from north of Beirut exploded near the city, and the army found a second rocket at the launch site.

A month earlier, two rockets hit Hezbollah's heartland in Beirut shortly after the group's leader made a speech defending the movement's involvement in Syria.


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Source: AAP



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