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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanon officials link Fatah al-Islam to Bar Elias terror cell |
| 2007-06-09 |
| Official reports indicated a connection between Fatah al-Islam and members of a terror cell arrested during raids on hideouts in east Lebanon's Bekaa valley, the daily An Nahar said Friday. On Friday, Lebanese border police at Masnaa border crossing in eastern Lebanon detained 12 men as they tried to enter the country with forged foreign passports, state-run National News Agency said. A statement by the General Directorate for State Security said three detainees, arrested near the Bekaa town of Bar Elias about 10 kilometers from the main border crossing to Syria on Wednesday, testified that they belonged to the terrorist group al-Qaida. Police late Thursday arrested a Syrian-Lebanese man after raiding his apartment in the village of Ghazzeh in Western Bekaa, An Nahar said. Security officials said troops confiscated detonators and timers from the apartment of Syrian-born Abdullah Barakat, a naturalized Lebanese citizen. Citing ministerial sources, An Nahar said Ahmed Merhi, a Lebanese recently detained in Ashrafiyeh, had confessed that he was a "servant" and that he had been receiving instructions from Syrian officers. The sources said Merhi had also admitted to "organizing Fatah al-Islam activities" in Lebanon and that he had recruited young men from Syria and Iraq to join the terrorist group. Merhi said the recruits were smuggled overland from Iraq to Lebanon via Syria. Fatah al-Islam has been fighting the Lebanese army since May 20 at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared near the northern city of Tripoli. On Thursday Lebanese troops discovered two cars and a van rigged with explosives during a raid on a hideout in Bar Elias. The statement by the General Directorate for State Security said the detainees also testified to rigging the vehicles -- two Mercedes Benz and a Volkswagen -- with explosives. Security sources said the suspects and weapons have been smuggled in from Syria to support Fatah al-Islam militants in their attacks aimed at destabilizing Lebanon. An Nahar said the detainees from Wednesday's raids were a Saudi, not an Iraqi as earlier reported, and two Syrians. It said the Saudi, identified as Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz al-Meghamis, belonged to Abu Hamza al Muhajer, the militant named as al-Qaida's new leader. An Nahar identified the Syrians as Ahmed Mohammed Osseili and Mohammed Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahim. |
| Posted by:Fred |