Lebanese Christian women armed with machine guns patrol their border village after jihadis launch suicide attacks
- ISIS is suspected of launching nine attacks including eight suicide bombs on the Lebanese border town of Qaa
- The area has a strong Christian population and members were attacked as they went to a church service yesterday
- Lebanese special forces rounded up 103 suspected illegal migrants from Syria in a security sweep earlier today
- The Lebanese government accused ISIS of being behind the deadly attacks on Qaa which killed five pepole
Lebanese Christian women have launched armed patrols carry machine guns after their village was attacked by a jihadi suicide bombers.
The women from the Christian village Qaa, which is a few hundred metres from Syria, was attacked by several suicide bombers on Monday.
The attacks have prompted the government to round up 103 Syrian migrants who are accused of sneaking into the country illegally.
Lebanese Christian women living yards from the Syrian border have launched armed patrols to protect their homes from Jihadi attacks
Five people were killed and more than 30 were wounded during a wave of bombings to hit the village yesterday morning
Qaa is one of the last remaining villages with a strong Christian presence on the Syrian border and is being targeted by suspected ISIS
Lebanese troops have detained a 103 Syrians accused of entering the country illegally following a string of suicide attacks along the border.
Lebanon shares a 250-mile land border with Syria to the north and the east.
The strikes on Qaa killed five people, with suicide bombers even attacking ambulances ferrying victims from earlier attacks.
A government statement said: 'The attack on the Lebanese national security and the unfamiliar manner in which it was executed usher in a new kind of phase in the state's confrontation with the dark forces of terrorism.'
The bombings triggered fear and panic among Qaa's residents and a deepening sense of foreboding in Lebanon, which has grappled for over five years with spillovers from Syria's civil war.
Tuesday was declared a national day of mourning and authorities postponed funerals for the five killed in Monday's bombings, citing security reasons. A major religious event scheduled in the capital, Beirut, by the militant Hezbollah group was also postponed.
While the women patrolled the streets with machine guns, several men sat down and drank coffee on the side of the street
The women were asked to return to their homes and 'not to shoot any strangers' by the army who said they would protect the area
Suspected ISIS terrorists tried to blow up an ambulance, pictured, during a wave of suicide attacks in Qaa, Lebanon yesterday
Qaa is only a short distance from the Syrian border and is been targeted by ISIS jihadis prompting locals to go out on armed patrols
Also citing security concerns, the ministry of culture postponed the opening of the Bacchus Temple, part of the famed ruins of Baalbek. A troupe of Syrian actors roaming the Bekaa Valley with a performance about refugee woes postponed its tour. A limited curfew was imposed in Qaa and the surrounding area.
The army said it carried out security raids in six areas in the Baalbek region, which has many informal Syrian refugee settlements. It said nine motorcycles and two vehicles were confiscated and two Lebanese were arrested with illegal weapons.
Monday's explosions, four in the early morning and five at night, also wounded nearly 30 in Qaa. Later in the day, two bombers blew themselves up outside the village church as people gathered for funerals of those killed earlier Monday.
The army said one of the suicide bombers detonated his explosives as he was chased by troops, while the other blew himself up near a military post when guards fired at him. No one was killed but the two blasts wounded 13 people. Minister of Interior Nouhad Machnouk said initial investigations indicate most of the bombers were from inside Syria and not refugees. He didn't elaborate.
Private Lebanese OTV aired what it said was footage from security cameras in Qaa, purporting to show a young man involved in the attack. The footage shows the young man with a backpack heading to a gathering outside the church, apparently to blow himself up.
Qaa and the nearby Ras Baalbek are the only two villages with a Christian majority in the predominantly Shiite Hermel region, where the Shiite Hezbollah group holds sway.
ISIS tried to kill worshipers attending this church in Qaa, which is only a few hundred yards from the Syrian border
Lebanese army soldiers, pictured, have rounded up 103 Syrian migrants who they suspect of entering the country illegally
Lebanon has faced increased violence with eight suspected suicide bombings and one further blast in the Qaa area yesterday
Lebanon has launched a day of mourning for those who have been killed and wounded in the suspected terror attack
The group has sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to bolster President Bashar Assad's forces against the predominantly Sunni rebels trying to topple him.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV blamed Monday's attack on ISIS, Al-Mustaqbal daily, which is owned by Hezbollah's rival group, suggested the army was the target of the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Sunni extremists have carried out several attacks in the border area since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, leading the Christians of Qaa to set up self-defense units for their village.
Officials believe ISIS was responsible for the attacks, but there has not been a claim of responsibility.
Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, speaking from Qaa, said most of the attackers had come from inside Syria, and not refugee camps hosting Syrian refugees who number more than 1 million in Lebanon according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
Local authorities imposed curfews on Syrian refugees in the area following the attacks. The Lebanese army said it had mounted dawn raids on Syrian refugee camps, detaining 103 people for being illegally present in the country.
The majority of Syrian refugees have no legal status in Lebanon due to the complications and costs of obtaining or renewing residency rights under rules imposed by the Lebanese government, aid agencies say.
In Qaa, residents armed with assault rifles fanned out in the streets for several hours on Tuesday, citing the need to protect the area. They later dispersed when the army asked them to go home. The head of the Qaa local council had on Monday night urged residents to shoot anyone suspicious.
Security sources said Hezbollah deployed dozens of armed men in nearby villages to help secure the area.
'We are not leaving for sure, we are staying here ... we are not afraid. We are not leaving our land,' Maher Rizk, a cafe owner, said.
ISIS is targeting Lebanon because the Shiite Hezbollah is sending its troops into Syria to support Bashar al-Assad against the Sunni ISIS
The suicide bombers attempted to target large groups of people before detonating their vests to cause maximum casualties
Lebanese special forces took up positions outside the church in Qaa in an effort to deter any further terrorist attacks
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