Lebanon monitored Australia bomb plot suspects
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BEIRUT - Lebanon monitored the brothers accused of plotting to blow up a flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi for more than a year and coordinated with the Australian government on it for a long time, the Lebanese interior minister said on Monday.
Australian police charged Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat this month with two counts of planning a terrorist attack after conducting raids to disrupt what authorities described as an Islamic State-inspired plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight.
Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk told a news conference that one of the men's brothers, Tareq Khayat, had moved to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria and become a commander in the jihadist group more than a year ago.
Lebanon's Internal Security Force then placed Tareq, Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat, and a fourth brother, Amer Khayat, under surveillance. Khaled, Mahmoud and Amer were all living in Australia but occasionally visited Lebanon, he said in Beirut.
