The Lebanese government has charged 17 people in a plot to harm UN peacekeepers stationed in the southern part of the country. So far, ten people have been arrested and the other seven, including the groups alleged leader, were charged in absentia.
The group, reportedly made up of people from Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian origins, are alleged to be part of Fatah al-Islam, which is thought to be connected to al-Qaeda.
In 2007, Fatah al-Islam forces clashed with the Lebanese military in three months of fighting that left over 400 soldiers, insurgents, and civilians dead.
The LA Times reported that the group was using a billboard ad agency business as cover for spying on UN peacekeepers and the LAF.
The arrests come just days after an explosion in southern Lebanon, which is now under investigation by UNIFIL and the LAF.
Some charge that the explosion came from a Hizballah weapons storage warehouse. Hizballah maintains that the blast came from a previously unexploded cluster bomb dropped by the Israeli air force at the close of the 2006 War.
