Bomb found near beach resort in Tyre

Military experts dismantled a bomb that was placed near a popular public beach in a southern Lebanese city yesterday, security officials said.

The bomb -- a pack of 2kg of explosives wired to a timer -- was placed in an empty can of baby milk powder, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The location is some 500m away from the posh Rest House beach resort in Tyre and about 1.5km from the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh. Troops sealed off the area, about 80km south of the capital, Beirut, as experts dismantled the bomb.

Tyre is popular with vacationing UN peacekeepers, who are deployed in the zone along the border with Israel to monitor a ceasefire that halted the war last summer between the Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel. It is also a stronghold of the Hezbollah.

On Monday, a bomb exploded in an empty bus parked in a Christian Beirut suburb, injuring 10 passersby.