A Lebanese MP and member of the country's anti-Syrian opposition escaped an assassination bid on Thursday morning, a high-ranking security official told AFP. "Our evidence shows that the operation was serious," the official said, describing the failed bid to murder MP Boutros Harb as "part of a series of assassination attempts" targeting politicians in Lebanon.

Harb earlier said that Lebanese security forces had warned him they had found "bomb detonators in a lift" in the building housing his office in Beirut, after three suspects tried to dismantle the lift door. The suspects later fled. The attempt on Harb's life follows a bid in April to murder Christian leader Samir Geagea, an outspoken critic of Syria, the security official said. The US State Department condemned the bid and urged a swift investigation. [NowLebanon]