Large explosion hits Hezbollah stronghold

Beirut (AP): A large explosion rocked a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group in the Lebanese capital early on Tuesday, sending black smoke billowing into the sky and causing an unknown number of casualties, security officials said. The officials said it was not clear whether the blast in the suburbs of Beir el-Abed in south Beirut was caused by a car bomb. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, sad it was near a gas station. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the blast was a car bomb inside a parking lot near an Islamic center. The station broadcast footage of a thick plume of smoke arising into the sky at the site of the blast as people rushed to take casualties to the hospital. Some Syrian rebel groups have threatened to strike in Lebanon after Hezbollah joined Syrian Pressident Bashar al Assad's troops in their battle against opposition fighters. In May, two rockets slammed into a Hezbollah strong hold in south Beirut, wounding four people. The rockets struck hours after Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed in a speech to help after propel Assad to victory in Syria's civil war.