Lebanon security chief says blast just missed his convoy

 The head of Lebanon's General Security agency said a suicide bomb that hit a checkpoint on the Damascus highway on Friday and killed one person narrowly missed his own convoy.
General Abbas Ibrahim, one of Lebanon's top security officials, also said the attack is linked to an offensive spearheaded by jihadists in Iraq.
"I was on the road to the (eastern province of) Bekaa, and the explosion happened when I was just 200 metres (yards) away," Ibrahim told private television station LBC by telephone.
He said he was unharmed but refused to say whether he thought he was the target of the attack.
"The whole of Lebanon is a target," Ibrahim said, adding he "constantly" receives threats, and those he has received recently have been particularly "worrying".
Friday's blast was the first to hit the country since March and killed one and wounded 32 others, the health ministry said.
"Our war against terrorism has not ended, and we are all under threat," Ibrahim warned.
Lebanese daily An-Nahar quoted Israeli media as saying Al-Qaeda-linked militants were believed to be plotting "a major terrorist operation in Lebanon targeting a high-ranking security official, most probably... Ibrahim."
Ibrahim is seen as close to the Shiite movement Hezbollah and its ally Damascus. He played a key role in an exchange of prisoners held by President Bashar al-Assad's regime and a group of nuns held by Syrian rebels.
During the past three years, Lebanon has suffered a string of attacks. Many of them targeted areas dominated by Hezbollah, and were claimed by extremist Sunni groups.
Before Friday's blast, the security forces raided two hotels in western Beirut and detained at least 15 people, an AFP photographer said.
Ibrahim confirmed the raids and the blast were linked, without elaborating.
He also said the latest blast was linked to a Sunni militant and jihadist offensive in Iraq in which the Baghdad has lost control of chunks of the country.
"The interior minister (Nohad al-Mashnuq) has already said that what is happening in Iraq will have a catastrophic impact on Lebanon... and this is true. We are preparing ourselves for such a phase," Ibrahim told LBC.
"What happens in any country in the region will necessarily impact the whole of the region," he added.