Suicide bomber kills two on Lebanon road to Damascus

BEIRUT, June 20, (AFP):- A suicide bomber killed two persons at a Lebanese checkpoint on the main highway from Beirut to Damascus on Friday, official media and a security source said.
The attack came as members of the security forces raided two hotels in central Beirut and detained at least 15 people, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
It was unclear whether the arrests were linked to the blast.
The attack at Dahr al-Baydar east of Beirut killed one person and wounded 32 others, the official National News Agency said quoting the health ministry, revising an earlier report of two dead.
A security source told AFP that the attack was a suicide bombing.
"A suicide car bomb attack hit a checkpoint of the Internal Security Forces (ISF)," he said.
The NNA said the convoy of the chief of Lebanon's General Security agency, General Abbas Ibrahim, had crossed the checkpoint shortly before the blast.
It was not clear if Ibrahim was the target of attack.
But the agency said that after the bombing, security forces closed off several roads in Beirut and set up barricades around the interior ministry.
Fragile Lebanon has been struck by a string of attacks in the past year, with security deteriorating further as a result of the conflict in neighbouring Syria.