Lebanon: Three foreigners accused of belonging to Al Qaeda

BEIRUT- Three foreigners were charged Monday by the Lebanese military court for forming a cell linked to Al Qaeda and planning terrorist acts in Lebanon and Syria, according to a judicial source.

•     The defendants, a Kuwaiti, a Syrian and a Tajik, accused of “forming a gang linked to Al Qaeda who planned to carry out terrorist acts in Lebanon and against the Syrian regime,” said the source.
  
      Two weeks ago, the commander of the Lebanese army Jean Kahwaji had told the Kuwaiti daily Assiyasah that Lebanon had dismantled a “large” cell of Al Qaeda who wanted to “destabilize Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Gulf countries, including Kuwait.”
  
      In February, the Lebanese court had charged 30 people, including nine Lebanese, four Palestinians and three Saudis, also for forming a cell linked to Al Qaeda to establish “an Islamic emirate” in northern Lebanon.
  
      They face life imprisonment.
  
      These persons have been arrested since 2007, when the army had spent more than three months of fighting against the splinter group of “Fatah al Islam,” ideologically linked to Al Qaeda in a Palestinian camp in northern Lebanon. The battle had caused over 400 deaths, including 168 soldiers.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.