The Lebanese Army dismantled a car rigged with 35 kilograms of explosives on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal early Thursday, a security source told The Daily Star. A Lebanese Army bomb disposal squad was called to inspect a suspicious Renault Rapid parked near Al-Rawda Mosque in Ras al-Sarj on the outer edge of Arsal shortly after midnight, a source from the Arsal police said. He said the Army sealed off the area around the mosque as the explosives unit examined the vehicle. It took several hours before experts were finally able to defuse the explosives at 4 a.m. The explosives were distributed between the two front seats and the trunk, all connected to a 10-meter-long wire attached at one end to a detonator, according to the source. The source said that among the explosives, estimated to weigh approximately 35 kilograms, were also pieces of shrapnel placed inside a funnel. The bomb was apparently meant to be detonated by a suicide bomber since it was designed to blow up after a pin was pulled, the source quoted one bomb expert as saying. The vehicle was impounded and taken to the Arsal police station.
