Lebanon Arrests 6 Islamist Militants Over Bombings

Fatah al-Islam sympathisers were linked to attacks on the Lebanese army earlier this year.

Lebanese authorities have arrested six militants suspected of involvement in bomb attacks in Syria and Lebanon and of belonging to an al Qaeda-inspired Islamist group, security sources said on Monday.

The Lebanese army confirmed in a statement it had detained five people who "are involved in terrorist acts". Police arrested a sixth man in connection with a bombing in Syria.

Army troops and security men made the arrests in the past four days in the northern city of Tripoli and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi. They coordinated with the Palestinian Fatah faction, which captured and handed over a suspect in the southern camp of Ain al-Hilweh, the sources said.

All the militants are said to belong to Fatah al-Islam, a group crushed by the army last year in a 15-week battle in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. At least 430 people were killed, including 170 soldiers and 220 militants.

Fatah al-Islam sympathisers were suspected of carrying out revenge attacks on the Lebanese army earlier this year.

Syrian state television last week showed 12 alleged members of Fatah al-Islam confessing that they helped plan a suicide car bombing in Damascus that killed 17 people in September.

A faxed statement purportedly from Fatah al-Islam on Monday denied responsibility for the bombing and said the men shown on Syrian television were not members of the group.

Ahmed Khaled al-Itr, a known Salafist militant, was detained by Lebanese police after his name came up in the confessions.

Two of the men shown on Syrian television had said Fatah al-Islam received support from the Future movement of Lebanese billionaire politician Saad al-Hariri, son of Rafik al-Hariri, a former prime minister assassinated in 2005.

Hariri denied on Monday that Future had any links to Fatah al-Islam and accused Syria of involvement with the group.

SYRIAN, LEBANESE COOPERATION

The militant arrested in Ain al-Hilweh was directly linked to al Qaeda, the security sources said. One of those seized in north Lebanon was the preacher at a mosque in Beddawi camp.

Last month, Lebanon's public prosecutor accused 34 men, including Syrians, Saudis, Lebanese and Palestinians, of belonging to an Islamist cell behind bomb attacks on the army.

These included explosions in Tripoli on Aug. 13 and Sept. 20, which killed a total of 22 people, 14 of them soldiers.

Syria linked those attacks to the car bombing in Damascus.

Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud visited Syria on Monday for rare talks on border and security issues.

A joint statement issued by Baroud and his Syrian counterpart, Bassam Abdel Majeed, said they had discussed cooperation to combat terrorism and control the border.

Syria ended a 29-year military presence in Lebanon in 2005 following international pressure over Hariri's killing.

Syria, which has called north Lebanon a source of Islamist militancy, has deployed troops on its border with Lebanon in recent months, saying the aim was to prevent smuggling.