A senior instructor of Hezbollah's guerrillas escaped an assassination attempt on Friday night when a bomb blew up his car seconds after he got out of the vehicle, Lebanese police said.
The explosion in the eastern city of Baalbek caused no casualties, a police official said on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the "treacherous assassination attempt" and warned that it will retaliate.
"The Zionist enemy is fully responsible for the operation's planning and execution," Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast on its Al-Manar Television.
"The Islamic resistance will fully shoulder its responsibility in this regard and do what is necessary," the statement added.
Neither Hezbollah nor the police would identify the official who drove the car, a Mercedes. Al-Manar said he was a member of the group's military wing, and the police said he was in charge of training guerrillas.
Al-Manar said the explosion took place near the house of Sheik Mohammed Yazbek, who sits on Hezbollah's Shoura Council, its top decision-making authority.
A reporter said the bomb exploded 300m from the Yazbek's house.
A small crowd quickly gathered at the scene. Police tried to stop media from taking pictures and threw a tarpaulin over the wrecked vehicle.
The type of bomb was not immediately clear, the police official added.
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