Militants planned 9/11-style Lebanon attack: report

BEIRUT (AFP) - A mass-circulation Beirut daily reported on Sunday that Fatah al-Islam, whose fighters are under siege at a refugee camp in the north of the country, had planned a September 11-style attack on Lebanon.

"This information was obtained by questioning arrested Fatah al-Islam members," An-Nahar said, without identifying its sources.

The paper also said that explosives seized in the country's second largest city Tripoli, south of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp where militants were being besieged by the army for the 15th day, came from Syria.

"Fatah al-Islam planned to attack a large hotel in the capital using four suicide truck bombs at the same time as launching suicide attacks on embassies in east and west Beirut," the paper said.

An-Nahar also said the Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist group "planned to launch attacks on the Shekka tunnel linking Beirut to Tripoli with the aim of cutting off the north and proclaiming an Islamic state there."