Militants planned 9/11-style Lebanon attack: report

BEIRUT: A mass-circulation Beirut daily reported on Sunday that Fatah al-Islam, whose fighters are under siege at a refugee camp in the north of the country, had planned a September 11-style attack on Lebanon.   

"This information was obtained by questioning arrested Fatah al-Islam members," An-Nahar said, without identifying its sources.   

The paper also said that explosives seized in the country's second largest city Tripoli, south of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp where militants were being besieged by the army for the 15th day, came from Syria.   

"Fatah al-Islam planned to attack a large hotel in the capital using four suicide truck bombs at the same time as launching suicide attacks on embassies in east and west Beirut," the paper said.   

An-Nahar also said the Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist group "planned to launch attacks on the Shekka tunnel linking Beirut to Tripoli with the aim of cutting off the north and proclaiming an Islamic state there."   

Fighting continued on Sunday around Nahr al-Bared as the deadly standoff between Lebanese troops and the militants entered its third week.   

In all 97 people have been killed since May 20, including 44 soldiers and 41 Islamist gunmen, in the bloodiest internal fighting in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.