E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Qaeda seeking Beirut base: report
AL-QAEDA has been seeking for several months to "establish itself" in Lebanon, the country's new interior minister has told a French newspaper.

"We know that for four or five months al-Qaeda has been trying to establish a presence in Lebanon," Ahmad Fatfat told Liberation in an interview published today.

Mr Fatfat replaced Hassan Sabeh, who resigned after violent anti-Danish protests in Beirut prompted by publication of 12 cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.

"The organisation is infiltrating its fighters and recruiting locally. The soil is fertile," he said. "We recently dismantled two groups suspected of belonging to this network."

He said that "13 individuals from different Middle East countries" were arrested "a month ago" and were "preparing attacks" in Lebanon. Last month a legal source said seven Syrians, three Lebanese, a Jordanian, a Palestinian and a Saudi were facing prosecution in a military court.

"We have also detained five people involved in attacks on military positions," Fatfat said, without giving further details.

Asked about rocket attacks on Israel in December for which al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility, Mr Fatfat said the information available to him led him to believe al-Qaeda was reponsible.

But, he said: "We have elements suggesting that it was men from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PLFP-GC) who carried (the attacks) out."




Posted by: lotp 2006-02-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=142349