Lebanese and Palestinian refugee officials have denied a newspaper report that Syria permitted more than 150 al-Qaeda activists to enter the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli daily paper Haaretzyesterday reported 'various intelligence services' saying that Syria permitted 150-200 members of al Qaeda group to settle in Ain el-Helweh. It said senior commanders, had arrived from Afghanistan through Damascus, Iran and directly to Lebanon.
It added that Mohammed Atta, regarded as the leader of the September 11th attacks on the United States, visited Syria two or three times.
Palestinian and Syrian officials reated scornfully to the report today. 'This is a matter of lies peddled by Israel and the United States. There are no al Qaeda members in Lebanon,' Syrian Information Minister Mr Ghazi Aradi said.
'Besides those who have declared a war on terrorism have paid tribute to Syria's contribution,' he added, in a reference to US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Mr William Burns' comment on June 18th that Syrian intelligence had helped to save American lives.
The local chief of Mr Yasser Arafat 's Fatah movement in Ain El-Helweh also categorically rejected the report. Mr Munir Maqdah said: 'The Israelis peddle these lies to take away attention from their failure to subdue the intifada.'
Intelligence services also claim to have found detailed information about contacts between a leading military figure of the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, Mr Imad Mourghniyeh, and an Al-Qaeda operative in Sudan.
The newspaper also charged that gunbattles last month at Ain el-Helweh were initiated by Al-Qaeda men there, with three of them killed in the fighting. It said commanders from Afghanistan were establishing a local infrastructure, with one intelligence report saying they were interested in getting material for chemical weapons. Syria is the effective powerbroker in its smaller neighbor, and maintains around 20,000 troops in Lebanon.
AFP