Sectarian tension in Lebanon over Syria rocket fire

Tensions flared Tuesday in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley where Shiite villagers blocked a road leading to a Sunni town and attacked cars after a rocket attack they blamed on Syria. An AFP journalist said villagers from Laboueh armed with stones and metal bars blocked the road leading to Arsal for several hours while others wielding sticks smashed the windscreens of cars trying to go in. The villagers claimed that rockets were fired from Arsal on Laboueh in the morning, wounding one person. But a security source said the rockets had been fired from Syrian territory. Arsal's residents support the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, whose army is backed by fighters from the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. Once dominated by Syria militarily and politically, multi-sectarian Lebanon is deeply divided over the Syrian war, with Sunnis backing the Sunni-led revolt and Shiites largely supporting the Assad regime. The divisions have widened since Hezbollah acknowledged last May that it was sending fighters into Syria to support Assad's troops.