Islamic Jihad member killed in Lebanon car bomb

SIDON, Lebanon, May 26 : A car bomb wounded a senior Islamic Jihad official and killed his brother in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon today, Lebanese security sources and officials of the Palestinian group said.

It was not immediately clear who targeted the official Mahmoud Majzoub, known as Abu Hamze, and his brother Nidal -also an Islamic Jihad member - but an Israeli military source said he was not aware of any involvement by Israel.

Islamic Jihad is the main Palestinian faction to defy a 15-month old truce with Israel, which it is committed to destroying.

Security sources said the explosion went off when the men, who were in the same car, turned the ignition. The blast, near the Abu Bakr mosque in Sidon, appeared to have been caused by a bomb planted in the vehicle, they said.

Lebanese security sources earlier said that Abu Hamze himself had been killed but later said his brother had died while he sustained critical wounds.

''Mahmoud al-Majzoub was critically wounded. Authorities told now us he is out of danger. But there was another martyr who was killed,'' Islamic Jihad representative in Beirut Abu Imad al-Rifai told Al Jazeera television.

Rifai said it was the second assassination attempt on Majzoub, and blamed Israel for the blast.

Jihad has killed more than 30 people in suicide bombings inside Israel since the start of a ceasefire which has been observed by some other Palestinian militant groups, including one that left 11 people dead in Tel Aviv on April 17.

Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank with deadly missile strikes and arrest raids, prompting calls for revenge from the group.

Reuters