http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iANvcYWsO4gIXCxEylI0ajTIfHYA
BEIRUT (AFP) – The Lebanese army said on Monday it had arrested a gang of foreigners who were plotting attacks on UN peacekeepers patrolling south of the country.
“The Lebanese army’s secret service arrested a network of non-Lebanese terrorists who were watching the movements of UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops in south Lebanon and who were planning to carry out attacks against them,” the army said.
News of the arrests follows a car bomb attack against a Spanish UN contingent in June that cost six lives and was praised by the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
“Our probe showed that the network planted an explosive device along the main road between Al-Abbasseya and Jall el-Bahr, near Tyre, targeting a UNIFIL patrol, but the device failed to explode,” the army said in a statement.
An army spokesman would only say that members of the group were arrested this week in the southern coastal region of Tyre, without giving more details on their identity.
He said the network was planning two other attacks in the same area with the aim of killing a large number of UNIFIL troops, adding that two devices were seized.