The London-based daily Al-Hayat's Dubai correspondent reported that well-known Western and local sources had been monitoring 300 armed individuals belonging to Islamic groups who had recently arrived in Lebanon from Iraq via Syria and were conducting training in northern Lebanon. According to the report, some members of the group, who are of different nationalities, boasted of fighting in Falluja in Iraq and that they were training other groups to spread across Lebanon or to send to the Iraqi front. 

The report also stated that other suspected armed groups were spreading through the Al-Barid River camp in the north of Lebanon, the Al-Ta'amir district in Sidon, and other areas of the country. According to the report, several security experts agreed that these groups must be hit before they expand to the point where they are too difficult to control, as in Iraq.

The report also stated that experts noticed that the main target of these groups was UNIFIL.

Source: Dar al Hayat (12/26/06)