A Lebanese military court has convicted eight men of plotting to attack UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, a court official said on Saturday.
Three Palestinians tried in absentia were sentenced to life in prison and five Lebanese in custody were each given three years in Friday’s ruling, the official said. He did not provide details of the plot or say whether the men were affiliated with a particular militant group.
ATTACKS
Several attacks have targeted the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon in recent years, though it is unclear who is behind them. In the most deadly attack, a car bomb killed six Spanish peacekeepers in June 2007.
No group claimed responsibility, but al-Qaeda’s deputy chief, Ayman al-Zawahri, praised the attack.
In an audio recording, he also called on Sunni militants last year “to expel the invading crusaders who pretend to be peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and not to accept Resolution 1701.”
RESOLUTION
That UN resolution ended the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. A 13,000-strong UN force, known as UNIFIL, was deployed on Lebanon’s border with Israel along with 15,000 Lebanese troops to monitor the truce.
The eight men convicted on Friday were also found guilty of establishing an armed gang with the aim of weakening state authority, transporting military arms and explosives and training to carry out terror attacks, including the firing of rockets in south Lebanon, the court official said.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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