Lebanese foil terrorist attack in Beirut

BEIRUT: A terrorist attack in Beirut - almost certainly against the US embassy - has been foiled, according to the authorities…

BEIRUT: A terrorist attack in Beirut - almost certainly against the US embassy - has been foiled, according to the authorities in Lebanon.

Nine people plotting the attack and some kidnappings, to try to force the release of Islamic militant prisoners, have been arrested, Lebanon military intelligence officials said yesterday.

News of the arrests came three days after suicide bombings on foreigners' housing compounds in Saudi Arabia killed at least 34 people, including seven Americans, the first major attack on US targets since the war in Iraq.

The Lebanese army said that with Syrian military intelligence it detained members of a cell planning "sabotage and attacks on various targets, the most important being the embassy of a major Western state, security and military outposts and kidnappings of officials" to bargain for the detainees' release.

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The army statement did not identify the embassy or the people allegedly targeted for abduction, but military intelligence sources said the heavily fortified US embassy compound in Beirut was the target. Saudi Arabia, birthplace of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, admitted to security errors as the White House told its Arab ally to deal with terrorists on its soil.

The US ambassador to Riyadh had earlier criticised Saudi Arabia for not responding swiftly enough to US demands for tighter security at the complexes before they were bombed.

The envoy, Mr Robert Jordan, had also urged dependants to leave the kingdom, telling American residents: "This is a front in the war against terrorism. Women and children don't belong on the battlefield."

Some 40,000 Americans live in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter. Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, said yesterday that Saudi Arabia would co-operate with an FBI investigation team but rejected charges that militancy was a homegrown phenomenon.

"There has been co-operation with them \ since the September 11th events and even before then," he said. His remarks were broadcast by Abu Dhabi Television. "Where do the terrorists spring from? Other countries. Where do the smugglers come from? Other countries that should dry up these sources," he said, pointing to smuggling across the country's long desert borders and extremism on the Internet. His comments, however, contrasted with admissions by Saudi clerics and other officials that extremism and militancy were problems the kingdom had to resolve.

Senior Saudi clerics declared that attacks on non-Muslim foreigners living in Islamic nations were strongly forbidden by Islam, and those who carried out such attacks were "corrupt" people.

Meanwhile, a Saudi opposition group has launched a satellite television channel which its leader says could prove a greater threat to Saudi rulers than violence inspired by Osama bin Laden.

Mr Saad al-Fagih, head of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, said the Islah channel was part of efforts to "penetrate the wall of deception" in the kingdom and allow Saudis to express their own opinions freely. "This will be more dangerous to the Saudi royal family than all the bombs of bin Laden," Mr Fagih said. - (Reuters)

The Department of Foreign Affairs said there were no Irish casualties in the Riyadh explosions. A spokesman said all Irish people living in Saudi Arabia had been accounted for and earlier reports that an Irish woman had been killed were an error.