BEIRUT — Lebanese security forces defused a car bomb on Monday in the southern suburb of Beirut.

The discovery of a bomb happened on the first night of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha and two months after a car bomb killed 20 people in the area and looked like the latest sign of growing sectarian tensions in Lebanon, exacerbated by the war in neighboring Syria.

The bomb was found in a Jeep Cherokee parked in the Mamora area, a Lebanese army statement said. Specialists were brought in to defuse the bomb and take the car away.

Car bombs are becoming increasingly common in Lebanon. In September, twin bombs killed 42 people at Sunni mosques in Tripoli, in the deadliest attack in the coastal city since the end of Lebanon’s civil war. g