Lebanese president denies presence of Al-Qaeda members in his country

BEIRUT, Dec 5 (AFP) - Lebanese President Emile Lahoud roundly denied a claim by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday that members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network are present in his country. "The accusations issued by the prime minister of the enemy, Ariel Sharon, over the presence of Al-Qaeda offices in Lebanon are null and void and conceal aggressive intentions toward Lebanon," Lahoud said in a statement issued by his office.

Sharon said earlier that his government had recently received intelligence that "a few al-Qaeda members have infiltrated the Gaza Strip and that others are in Lebanon, where they are collaborating closely with Hezbollah," the Lebanese fundamentalist Shiite Muslim movement.

Lahoud responded that there were no links between Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, which led the resistance to Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon that ended in May 2000. For his part, Defense Minister Khalil Hrawi said there was no chance fundamentalist organizations could operate from Lebanon because authorities had successfully foiled infiltration attempts.

"Security forces have succeeded in arresting several people and foiling terrorist actions that would have been launched from Lebanon, thanks to the coordination in this respect with a number of Arab and Western countries," including the United States, France, Germany and Syria, he said.

Two Lebanese nationals and a Saudi suspected of supporting Al-Qaeda were arrested in Lebanon in October, and their trial is set to open on December 16. Hrawi added that the army had confronted an Islamist group in northern Lebanon in January 2000 and dismantled it. "This success is known to all," he said.

Hezbollah, which has repeatedly denied any links to Al-Qaeda, would not immediately comment on Sharon's accusations. Israel has been on heightened alert since twin attacks on its citizens in Kenya last week, which officials in Israel suspect to be the of the fundamentalist network, fearing it could be planning more attacks.

Three Israelis and 10 Kenyans were killed in a suicide attack on a hotel near the Kenyan port of Mombasa on November 28, shortly after missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter flight taking off from there with 261 passengers.

Opposition blames Baghdad for killing of Iraqi dissident in Lebanon

TYRE, Lebanon, Dec 4 (AFP) - An Iraqi Shiite Muslim opposition figure on Thursday accused Baghdad of assassinating a member of his organisation who was found beaten and hanged in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. "It was a liquidation carried out by officers of the Iraqi intelligence services," Sheikh Mohammad al-Bussairi told AFP at his home in Abbassiyeh, seven kilometres (four miles) from Tyre.

Walid Ibrahim Mayahi, a 34-year-old researcher at Al-Sadr Islamic Cultural Center, was discovered Wednesday hanging by a rope in one of its rooms, and "the victim's head bore marks of a beating with an iron bar," police said.

Three other Iraqis who lived in the building have since gone missing. According to Sheikh Bussairi, the three Iraqis had turned up at the Tyre centre as refugees looking for help but were now believed to have been working for Iraqi intelligence.

"They tried to kidnap me and to steal the computer which contains the files of our activities in Lebanon," said Bussairi. "When they failed, they killed Mayahi, who told me shortly before his death that the three men tried to turn him against our organisation and he had refused," he said.

Bussairi said the three had made off with documents from Mayahi's room listing names of Iraqis, and said he himself had received threats before the killing. "Traitor, you are under observation ... Recover your conscience and return to your homeland," read a message attached to the motorbike of a member of the Islamic centre that Mayahi showed to AFP.

Sheikh Bussairi and five other Iraqis living in Tyre were questioned by police on Wednesday and released five hours later. One of the nine, centre director Sheikh Mohammed Daud al-Bassari, told reporters "the assassins ransacked the cultural center and stole documents concerning our activities" in Lebanon.

The centre was founded five years ago by followers of Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadek Sadr, a Shiite leader assassinated in Iraq in 1999, and often receives visits from high-ranking clerics opposed to President Saddam Hussein.

Lebanon broke off ties with Iraq in 1994 after an Iraqi dissident was killed in Beirut, but reestablished diplomatic relations with Baghdad last year as trade increased between the two countries. According to the UN refugee agency, 1998 figures showed almost 2,000 Iraqis had obtained refugee status in Lebanon.

Explosion wrecks Sunni Muslim shrine in eastern Lebanon

ANJAR, Lebanon, Dec 4 (AFP) - An explosion early Wednesday destroyed the tomb of a revered Sunni Muslim figure near the Armenian-populated town of Anjar in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, security sources said.

The blast by an estimated 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of dynamite caused no casualties but wrecked the tomb of Nabi Uzeir (eds: correct) -- a Muslim holy figure -- and a mosque on one side, the sources said. It was not claimed by any group, but slammed as a "cowardly attack" by President Emile Lahud, who spoke with the country's Sunni Muslim mufti, Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani to convey support for the community.

Qabbani said in a statement: "Lebanon, with Syria's help, will be able to thwart plans that target Lebanese unity, security and stability by sowing discord between its sons." A security cordon was quickly established by Lebanese security forces and Syrian intelligence officers around the site of the attack, which is located between Anjar and Majdal Anjar, whose residents are Sunnis.

Anjar is home to thousands of Armenians and is also the headquarters of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon.

US ambassador's Ramadan dinner snubbed in Lebanon

SHTAURA, Lebanon, Dec 2 (AFP) - The US ambassador to Lebanon, Vincent Battle, was snubbed by dozens of mayors he invited to a dinner for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan Monday evening in an organized protest over Washington's support for Israel.

Only nine people turned up for the iftar meal breaking the daily dawn-to-dusk fast that is a main part of Ramadan at a hotel in the eastern town of Shtaura, including just three of the local mayors who were invited, according to an AFP correspondent.

Battle had sent out invitations to 55 mayors from Lebanon's Bekaa valley, and preparations were made to host 100 people, hotel officials said. Among those who attended under heavy security was the mayor of the small mostly Christian town of Zahle.

At a meeting later held at the local headquarters of the Lebanese Baath party, representatives of several political factions hailed the success of the boycott. The boycott had been called by the Bekaa municipalities assembly to protest "American bias towards Israel" amid the 26-month Palestinian uprising, and to demand an end to Washington's "unconditional support" for the Jewish state, the groups said in a statement.

At the hotel, Battle said in a speech that the United States' strength was in its impartiality, and added that it had wanted to express its friendship to Muslim states by hosting iftar dinners. On Wednesday night, a similar dinner hosted by the US ambassador in Kaslik, a rich suburb of Beirut was attended by several members of government, but Lebanon's Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Qabbani did not attend to protest against US support for Israel.

Devout Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours throughout Ramadan, a month marked by an upsurge of religious fervor and activity.