Disclosure of Extremist Terror Cell Revealed al-Qaida New Organizational Approach
Judicial proceedings continued against the 17 members of a terrorist network that have been charged with plotting to attack the Lebanese army and UNIFIL amidst reports that al-Qaida has adopted a "new organizational approach."
The daily As-Safir on Thursday, citing sources close to the judicial investigation, said al-Qaida”s new approach gives terror cells "total independence" and slows them to work separately from one another in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region.
The new approach also gives al-Qaida cells adequate finance flow with freedom of decision, according to the sources.
Saqr charged the 17, including the alleged leader of an al-Qaida-inspired organization, with forming an "armed gang" with the aim of committing crimes and planning attacks against civilian and military targets as well as U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, the officials said. Seven of those charged are at large.
"This was an exhaustive effort involving cooperation between Arab and European intelligence services together with the Lebanese army intelligence that led to the arrest at Beirut airport of key man Munjid al-Fahham while en route from Athens to Beirut," one source said.
An Nahar newspaper also quoted a source close to the investigation as saying that the terror network was caught "during the planning phase" following the arrest of Fahham, a Syrian who led the terrorist cell.
"The network is charged with aiming to… undermine the authority of the state and monitor the Lebanese army and UNIFIL in order to carry out attacks on them," the state-run National News Agency had said. Seven suspects were charged in absentia.