BEIRUT - Sunni Islamist militants inspired by Al Qaeda and possibly linked to it pose a growing threat to security in Lebanon, Lebanese and Palestinian political sources and diplomats in Beirut say.

The militants, some of whom have fought in Iraq, are building their presence in a country that Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri has said “will have a pivotal role in the coming battles with the crusaders and the Jews”.

“There is movement among extremist sleeper cells,” a senior Lebanese political source said. “The group is getting bigger but not with a centralised leadership. Their presence has become strong on the ground and financially.”

“There are many people who went to Iraq at the time of Zarqawi who have come back to become active,” he said, referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who was killed in 2006. The security assessment was shared by Palestinian activists in Lebanon.

Bordering Israel and host to UN peacekeepers, Lebanon has many potential targets for militant Islamists. In an audio message posted on April 22, Zawahri called on jihadists from the country to “prepare to reach Palestine and expel the invading crusader troops that claim to be peacekeeping forces.”

The Unifil peacekeeping force has been targeted with bombs three times since its expansion under a UN resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Shia Islamist Hezbollah, which dominates the south and co-operates with Unifil.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Diplomats say the threat of Al Qaeda-linked militancy tops their list of security worries in Lebanon, where stability has been shaken in the last three years by political killings, bombings and the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“It’s our number one security concern,” said one diplomat.

Fatah Al Islam, a group inspired by Al Qaeda, last year staged a three-month insurrection against the army at a Palestinian camp in northern Lebanon.

Drawing several hundred fighters from across the Arab world, the revolt was eventually crushed in the bloodiest internal fighting since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. Some anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians believed the group was sent by Syrian intelligence to destabilise Lebanon, while the army believed it was in contact with Al Qaeda.

The threat now is less distinct.

“We can say that there are independent groups, some of which took part in the war in Iraq,” said Yasser al-Sirri, an exiled Egyptian Islamist based in London and an expert on Islamist movements. “They went to Iraq for jihad and there were organised and recruited before their return.”

The groups share the same ideology as Al Qaeda but are “not necessarily linked” to it, said Sirri, who has been sentenced to death in Egypt for alleged militant activities.

An Al Qaeda cell led by a Syrian and a Saudi was uncovered by security forces in Lebanon late last year. Its 31 members have been charged with plotting to bomb a church in the Christian town of Zahleh in the Bekaa Valley.

Sirri said the nascent groups might mobilise to attack Western targets after Zawahri’s tape, in which Osama bin Laden’s No 2 also criticised — but did not name — Hezbollah.

The Iranian- and Syrian-backed group is as wary as any group in Lebanon of militancy linked to, or inspired by, Al Qaeda, which has been blamed for suicide attacks on Shias in Iraq.

Hezbollah’s tight control of the mainly Shia south could explain why, despite Lebanon’s weak security forces, Sunni militants have yet to launch a sustained campaign.

Ahmed Moussalli, a professor at the American University of Beirut and an expert on Islamic movements, listed Hezbollah as a potential target of Al Qaeda-linked groups.

“Now they are better placed, better equipped and more capable,” he said. “It is a real threat. Al Qaeda has been able to hit in places where the security is really tight. So in a country like Lebanon they are more capable.” - Reuters