Beirut, April 20: A Lebanese member of parliament known as a strong opponent of Syria found two bombs near his home in the Bekaa Valley town of Zahle early on Tuesday.
An army spokesman said the bombs had not been primed.
But MP Elie Marouni of the right-wing Christian Phalangist party said the devices, planted on his doorstep and attached to his car windscreen wipers, were clearly meant as a message from his political foes.
“Today we are marking the second anniversary of the assassination of my brother and a fellow activist,” Marouni said.
“There are also some people who do not want us to stand in the local election,” due to be held in stages from May 2 to 30, he added.
Marouni’s brother, Nasri, and a fellow Phalangist, Salim Assi, were killed and three other people wounded in a shooting by a supporter of a rival faction on April 20, 2008.
The discovery of the bombs came just one day after gunfire targeted supporters of the Phalangist party, a member of the parliamentary bloc of Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Monday’s shooting involved a convoy of Phalangist activists passing through a mountain resort town east of Beirut. Party leaders blamed supporters of the rival Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
Tensions with Syria have eased considerably since a 2009 general election passed off without major incident between rival alliances, after which Hariri formed a government of national unity.
Late last year, the prime minister visited Damascus to mend relations with Syria that had been strained since the murder of his father, former premier Rafiq Hariri, in a 2005 car bombing.
—Agencies