Syrian rebel group claims Bir al-Abed attack

A group calling itself the 313 Brigade has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's car bombing in the capital of Lebanon that targeted Hezbollah members. Fifty-three people were wounded in car bomb attack in the Bir al-Abed neighbourhood, southern suburbs of Beirut. In a statement on its Facebook page, Brigade 313-Special Forces, which calls itself "an independent military group fighting in Syria," said it staged the attack over Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria. "After [Lebanese] political parties failed to restrain [Hezbollah], and after several state institutions proved to be complicit in supporting its militias, and due to the fierce attacks [Hezbollah] launched on the patient city of Homs ... special operation units from the brigade executed the attack," it said. The groups accused Hezbollah of evacuating the dead and wounded from the scene of the blast to prevent the media for revealing the actual number of casualties. The rebel group also threatened further attacks. "This attack isn't the first and won’t be the last," the statement concluded.