Two rockets explode near Beirut: Security source

BEIRUT: Two rockets fired from an unknown location exploded early Friday outside Beirut, a security source told AFP, with one landing just metres from an entrance to the presidential palace.

"Two rockets landed in Baabda but there were no casualties," the source told AFP, without offering further details.

According to an AFP photographer, one rocket fell in the garden of a house located just 100 metres from the secondary entrance of the palace.

Official news agency ANI said the second rocket fell near a Lebanese army training camp in the region of Baabda, around eight kilometres southeast of the capital.

The incident came amid tensions in Lebanon over the conflict in neighbouring Syria, which has spilled over and led to violence in several areas.

Lebanon's powerful Shia group Hezbollah has openly sent its fighters to battle alongside the Syrian regime against rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar al Assad.

Many Lebanese Sunnis, however, back the Sunni-led Syrian opposition.

In June, a Grad rocket fired from north of the Lebanese capital exploded near the city and the army found a second rocket at the launch site.

And in May, two rockets hit Hezbollah's heartland in Beirut shortly after the group's leader made a speech defending the movement's involvement in Syria.