(Zaman Al Wasl)- Al Qaeda's Syria branch, the Nusra Front, has accused Islamic State of carrying out a car bomb targeted an independent religious society made up of Syrian scholars in Arsal town northeast Lebanon Thursday that killed at least nine people, a source with close ties with Nusra told Zaman al Wasl.
The blast ripped through a commercial area of the Sabil neighborhood of the town of Arsal. Emergency services were working to rescue people from the rubble, local media said.
The source said that ISIS had opposed Nusra's plan to establish new rebel faction, Tahrir al-Sham Brigade, in coordination with Qalamoun Sharia society that would be active in Qalamoun region.
The head of the society, Sheikh Othman Mansour, was among the dead, the sources said.
Lebanon's National News Agency said the society had been involved in negotiations for the release of Lebanese soldiers still being held by Islamist militants after being captured when fighters overran Arsal last year. The Nusra Front was involved in the clashes that led to the soldiers' capture.
ISIS has not issued any statement denying Nusra's accusations.
The two Sunni Islamist groups have a limited presence in western Syria near the Lebanese border.
Syria's civil war has regularly spilled over into Lebanon, which shares a more than 300 km (190 mile) border with its bigger neighbor, and is still rebuilding after its own 15-year civil war.
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