Bombs exploded on two buses in a Christian area of Lebanon today, killing at least three people and wounding 17, police said, a day before the second anniversary of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri's assassination.
Security sources had earlier put the death toll at 11.
A police spokesman said the report of three deaths was preliminary and the toll could rise.
Government sources said most of the casualties were on public buses carrying people to work in Beirut from the area around Bikfaya, home town of former President Amin Gemayel, whose son was assassinated by gunmen in November.
The blasts wrecked the buses and other vehicles on a mountain road about 24 km northeast of Beirut. Pools of blood lay near a minibus with its roof torn off.
Some passengers were blown apart and body parts were strewn near the buses, which were about 50 metres (yards) apart. When the first bomb exploded, the driver of the second bus stopped and got out. His own bus then exploded, security sources said.
The driver of the first bus was killed. The driver of the second was wounded, the sources added.