Lebanese officials firmly rejected Monday reports that Osama bin Laden is moving the command of his al-Qaeda network from Afghanistan to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, the official NNA news agency reported.
According to reports, Bin Laden allegedly dispatched a senior al-Qaeda activist to Lebanon two weeks ago to discuss arrangements for the transfer, with leaders of the Lebanese resistance party Hizbullah.
Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi denied the report, dismissing the allegation as "absolute nonsense, sheer fantasy." "There is no way any bin Laden's envoy can manage to enter Lebanon," Aridi said.
The minister also promised there is not a single terrorist training camp anywhere throughout Lebanon. "No such camps exist in the Bekaa Valley or elsewhere in Lebanon. There is no Iranian terror-instructors training Lebanon for terrorist attacks on any other country," he added.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has stated that Tehran has been airlifting terrorism-instructors through Syria to train Lebanese terrorists in camps in the Bekaa Valley before sending them, with Hezbollah's assistance, to bring forth attacks against Israel. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
