Police seized an enormous cash of multi-barreled rocket launchers with various types of U.S.-made missiles, assault rifles and an arsenal of rocket-propelled grenades from a house in Beirut's middleclass Barbour neighborhood in a 7-hour daybreak to midday raid Tuesday, the Beirut media reported Wednesday. The house tenant, identified only by his nom de guerre of Abu Nabil, was arrested for questioning about the source of the cash and the purpose of having it stashed in a residential neighborhood, the media said, suggesting the arms may have belonged to the Mourabitoun group.

Mourabitoun, Arabic for ambushers, were the only Sunni Muslim militia that fought during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. The group was disbanded in the early 1980s and its leader at the time, Ibrahim Koleilat, left Lebanon for a self-chosen exile in Libya.

The group mysteriously surfaced anew after the sweeping election victories of slain ex-Premier Rafik Hariri in the 2000 elections, kicking out of parliament most of President Lahoud's supporters when they were at political loggerheads.

There were claims in the Beirut press that the Lahoud-controlled military intelligence apparatus was behind Mourabitoun's resurrection in an attempt to create anti-Hariri forces within the mostly Sunni population of Beirut.

If the media tip is accurate that the newly seized arms cash belonged to the Mourabitoun, the suggestion is made that Fouad Seniora's newly formed government, which has a majority of Harirists, is out to crack down outright on the resurging Mourabitoun.

Hariri's Al Mustaqbal newspaper and the pro-Hariri Al Liwa daily have soloed with the report of the arms seizure. Both said policemen spent hours loading the seized weapons onto police trucks that sped away to police stations along Beirut's Corniche Mazraa commercial thoroughfare on Tuesday.

Both newspapers, whose stories were trumpeted by several Beirut radio and television networks on Wednesday, said the interrogation of Abu Nabil prompted a police raid on a house in suburban Aaramoun south of Beirut, were at least two assault rifles with plenty of ammunition rounds were confiscated. An arrest warrant was issued to the runaway house owner. - Naharnet