Free Republic

A military court began the trial Friday of 31 people accused, among other things, of forming a terrorist network, carrying out operations targeting restaurants with American names and planning an attempt to assassinate US Ambassador Vincent Battle. The defendants are also accused of trying to attack the US Embassy and blow up a Russian airliner carrying a Russian diplomat at Beirut International Airport in protest against the war in Chechnya. The court, which was presided over by Brigadier Maher Safieddine, questioned six of the accused who, the indictment charged, had links with the Al-Qaeda organization. The six were brought into...

Lebanon has charged six more people with belonging to a group blamed for a string of bomb attacks against Western fast-food outlets, judicial and security sources said Saturday. Lebanese officials have blamed the network for a bomb spree targeting fast-food restaurants including McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, and say some members also plotted to kill US Ambassador Vincent Battle. The six men, including one handed over to Lebanon by Syria, are charged with “belonging to a terrorist group.” Lebanon said on Thursday it had foiled a separate plot to attack the US Embassy and kidnap officials to bargain for the release...

The US administration has called on Syria to halt any arms deliveries to Hizbullah and urged Lebanon to deploy the Lebanese Army in the South, according to US Ambassador Vincent Battle. Speaking to Friday’s issue of the Beirut-based French-language weekly, Magazine, Battle said that his country’s concern was mainly over “Syria’s support to terrorist networks, specifically Hizbullah.” In the interview, which was faxed to The Daily Star by the magazine, added that negotiations with Lebanon and Syria regarding the issue went very far. “We are talking about an issue which is very important to the United States,” the ambassador said....

The US Embassy paused Thursday to commemorate the death of 51 Americans and Lebanese during suicide bomb attacks against the diplomatic mission in 1983 and 1984. “Today we come to pay our respects to the American and Lebanese employees of the Beirut Embassy who died in the bombings of 1983 and 1984,” said US Ambassador Vincent Battle during a brief ceremony at the embassy in Awkar. “We come to say thank you for the tremendous sacrifice they paid for serving the US Embassy.”