Al-Qaida militants in terrorism meeting - reports
Members of the al-Qaida terror network held an unprecedented meeting in March with Mideast militant groups in Lebanon, ABC News reported last night.
Citing US intelligence and law enforcement officials, ABC said leaders from Osama bin Laden’s network met Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and Palestinian militants from Hamas.
The groups allegedly discussed possible coordination of attacks against targets including the US and Britain, the report said.
Hezbollah waged a long war against Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon and is widely assumed to have been behind the bombings of the US embassy and marine barracks in Beirut.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for many of the most devastating suicide bombings against Israeli civilians in the last year.
The meeting ‘‘suggests a new departure which is very startling and dangerous because they have not worked together before,’’ Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counter-terrorism chief told ABC News.
