Palestinian suspected in Lebanon plot, 7 arrested

The Lebanese army has arrested seven people, including two soldiers, suspected of being part of a Sunni Islamist network which had planned to carry out attacks on military targets, security sources said Tuesday. "The army arrested a Salafi network with connections to al Qaeda that wanted to blow up military bases," one of the sources said. "They had recruited two from the army -- one is a sergeant and another is a student officer -- and five civilians." He said the Lebanese army was negotiating the handover of the group's leader, a Palestinian, with the authorities who run one of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. He said the seven suspects were arrested 10 days ago. Another source said the two army suspects were transferred to a military court four or five days ago. "The issue now is in the hands of the judiciary," he said. It was not immediately clear whether the suspects are members of the militant group Fatah al-Islam which the Lebanese army fought for three months in 2007 in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon. Approximately 425,000 Palestinians are registered as refugees in Lebanon by the UN, many of them live in 12 camps scattered across the country in bad conditions.