Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Beirut hotel Wednesday evening during a security raid, a security source told The Daily Star.
The source said one of the bombers was a Saudi national and blew himself up in his room on the fourth floor of the Duroy Hotel in the bustling district of Raouche, a few meters away from the Saudi Embassy.
At least two General Security personnel were wounded in the explosion, which occurred around 7:30 p.m.
Ambulances and Civil Defense teams rushed to the scene of the blast, the third in less than a week.
The explosion came only two days after a suicide bomber killed a General Security sergeant at a checkpoint in the Beirut suburb of Tayyouneh. On June 20, a suicide bomber killed a police officer on a checkpoint in the east Lebanon town of Dahr Al Baidar.
Fire raged inside the hotel as plumes of smoke rose from two rooms and covered the city’s skylines.
Members of General Security cordoned off the area and deployed around the hotel’s premises as they continued their security operation.
Media reports said security forces apprehended three people of Arab nationality part of a terror cell.
Earlier in the day, the Lebanese Army said that it arrested a five-member cell.
