By Reuters:  Eight suicide bombers
attacked a Lebanese Christian village on Monday, killing five people and
wounding dozens more, in the latest violent spillover of the five-year-old
Syrian war into Lebanon. Security sources said they believed Islamic State was
responsible for the bombings in the village of Qaa on Lebanon’s border with
Syria, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A first wave of attacks involved
four suicide bombers who struck after 4 a.m., killing five people, all
civilians.  The first bomber blew himself
up after being confronted by a resident, with the other three detonating their
bombs one after the other as people arrived at the scene. The Lebanese army
said four soldiers were among the wounded.

A second series of attacks,
involving at least four bombers, took place in the evening as residents were
preparing the funerals of those killed earlier. Two of the four bombers blew
themselves up outside a church, security sources said. Nobody was killed.
Medics put the number of injured at 15. “It is clear from the pace of
explosions that we have entered an episode from hell,” Wael Abu Faour, the
health minister, told Reuters.

In comments to local media, the head
of the Qaa local council urged residents to stay at home and shoot anyone
suspicious. The provincial governor meanwhile imposed a curfew on Syrian
refugees in the area.  Lebanese security
services have been on heightened alert for militant attacks in recent weeks.
Islamic State had urged its followers to launch attacks on
“non-believers” during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began
in early June.

Lebanon has been repeatedly jolted
by militant attacks linked to the war in neighboring Syria, where the powerful
Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah is fighting in support of President Bashar
al-Assad.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah on Friday warned of a threat posed by militants based in the border
area between Syria and Lebanon, saying they were still preparing car bombs in
the area.

(Additional reporting by Reuters TV;
Writing by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam; Editing by Andrew Roche)