An al-Qaeda cell tried to assassinate Hizbullah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah lastsummer, the Lebanese, Arab-language newspaper As-Safir reported Thursday.
According to the report, the Lebanese security services are currently conducting a vast investigation into al-Qaeda's activities in Lebanon. Several al-Qaeda cell members have been arrested, and have admitted – among other things – to firing Katyusha rockets at Israel onseveral occasions.
The cells are also investigated in connection with a conspiracy to attack UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon. The attack, which failed to materialize, was meant to look link the Hizbullah's handiwork, deterioration further the fragile relations between the two.
Lebanese security services, said As-Safir, have uncovered three al-Qaeda cells operating in southern Lebanon. Search and seizure operation in the region further uncovered some 150 pounds of cyanide and other chemicals used to make explosive devices; several hundred pounds of explosive, said the report, have already been shipped back to Iraq.
The American embassy in Beirut, added the report, has filed an official request with the Lebanese security services, asking it be made privy to the investigation reports, in order to determine if the explosives sent to Iraq were meant to target US Forces in the country.