Conflict Incident Report

More than four people were killed on Thursday in a bombing that targeted a meeting of the al-Qalamoun Muslim Scholars committee in the northeastern border area of Arsal, reported the National News Agency.
The head of the committee, Syrian cleric Sheikh Othman Mansour, survived the blast but was in a critical condition, LBCI television said.
NNA identified four of the dead as the clerics Omar al-Halabi, Alaa Bakkour, Ali Rashaq and Fawaz Orabi.
It said several bodies that are yet to be identified were also found on the scene.
Several other people were injured in the blast.
According to LBCI, all of the casualties are Syrian.
NNA said the explosives used in the attack were hidden in a motorcycle that was parked near the meeting's venue.
But a security source told AFP that the attack was carried out by a “suicide bomber.”
The source said that the bomber entered the meeting of Syrian clerics and "detonated an explosive belt, leaving five people dead and six wounded until now."
"The explosion definitely targeted this meeting... where usually no less than 15 people are gathered," Arsal resident Abu Ibrahim told AFP by telephone.
He said the committee's deputy head, Omar al-Halabi, had been killed.
"I just went to the hospital, and there were people crying and screaming," he said.
Military Examining Magistrate Judge Saqr Saqr tasked the military police and army intelligence to carry out the investigations, said Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5).
The Qalamoun Muslim scholars committee is concerned with aiding Syrian refugees and catering to the needs of their encampments.
It was also tasked with carrying out mediations to release servicemen kidnapped in Arsal in 2014.
The servicemen were abducted by al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front and Islamic State militants in the wake of clashes in the northeastern town in August 2014.

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