Report:Hezbollah, Iran planning attacks

• Tweet

BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 13 (UPI) -- Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard operatives are planning attacks on western targets in the coming days, a Lebanese report said.

The report was based on information gathered by western intelligence agencies monitoring the "recent abnormal movements of cadres suspected of belonging to Hezbollah or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," the Beirut Observer Web site said Tuesday.

The report said the attacks are meant to divert global attention from indictments the international United Nations tribunal is expected to serve in the investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The indictments will most likely name "leadership cadres in the party [Hezbollah]," the site said.

The report comes on the eve of the country's 36th anniversary of the 1975-90 Civil War, and amid deep divisions in the country's political leadership, a paralysed cabinet and mounting concern about events in the Arab world that threaten Lebanon's security and stability, The Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star said Wednesday.

Lebanon is under threat of new sectarian strife over the pending tribunal indictments and a "more explosive issue that threatens to destabilize the country is Hezbollah's arsenal," the newspaper said noting the issue is currently the target of a fierce verbal campaign by caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his allies in the March 14 coalition.

The tribunal and Hezbollah's weapons have sharply divided the country into two rival camps -- the March 8 camp led by Hezbollah and the March 14 camp led by Hariri, the paper said