Lebanon arrests 'Tripoli cell'

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Lebanese security officials say a group of alleged extremists arrested on Sunday were part of a group involved in recent deadly attacks against the army.

They said the group was behind bombings in Tripoli in August and September and was plotting further attacks including against the police HQ in the capital.

Some group members were linked to the militant Sunni group Fatah al-Islam.

Its fighters were ousted from a refugee camp near Tripoli last year after a long siege in which hundreds died.

"So far the army is the sole target of attacks mounted by this cell and the operations they were planning target the army and internal security forces," an official was quoted saying by AFP news agency.

Six suspects were arrested on Sunday but three were subsequently released.

The official linked the cell to an attack on a military bus in Tripoli on 29 September, when four soldiers and three civilians died.

He also blamed them for a bus bombing on 13 August which killed 14 people, including nine soldiers, and a bombing in Akkar in May that killed a soldier.

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Documents seized in two places searched by a joint force - in Tripoli and Akkar - show that the army and internal security forces were also their next target," he said.

An interior ministry statement on Sunday said police were searching for a leading member of the cell, Abdul Ghani Ali Jawhar.

On Monday Interior Ministry officials showed reporters an explosives belt, rifles, ammunition, bombs and guns that were found at the home of Mr Jawhar's sister.

Interior Minister Ziad Barud said the arrests of alleged cell members did not mean "threats have been eliminated" and security forces remained on alert.

Fatah al-Islam staged an uprising in Nahr al-Bared camp for long-term Palestinian refugees near Tripoli in the summer of 2007. Fifteen weeks of fighting left more than 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers.

The group's leader, Shaker al-Abssi, and a number of fighters are believed to have fled the camp. Mr Abssi has vowed revenge attacks against the Lebanese army.

Correspondents say Tripoli - a traditional bastion of conservative Sunni Muslims - has become a cauldron of political and sectarian tensions in the past year, raising fears of a spike in Islamist militancy.