Lebanon seizes explosives from pro-Syrian group

BEIRUT, Dec 21 (Reuters) Lebanese police seized large quantities of explosives, detonators and timers in the homes of members of a pro-Syrian group in north Lebanon today, security sources said.

Police are surrounding some of the Beirut offices of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), an opposition party, after making some arrests in northern Koura province, they said.

An SSNP source and a security source in northern Lebanon said seven men had been arrested, all SSNP party supporters or activists.

A police statement confirmed the seizure and some arrests but did not say to which group the detainees and the explosives belonged.

''A force from the Internal Security Force raided these houses and found inside them a large quantity of explosives, electrical detonators and timers in addition to a large cache of weapons,'' the statement said.

SSNP officials had no immediate comment but party leader Ali Qansou was due to give a news conference later in the day.

Lebanon has been shaken by 16 major explosions, assassinations and attempted assassinations aimed at anti-Syrian figures over the past two years.

A U N team is probing all those attacks, the most devastating of which was a truck bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

An anti-Syrian Christian cabinet minister, Pierre Gemayel, was shot dead by gunmen near Beirut last month.

The SSNP was founded in 1932 and called for a greater Syrian state which would have included Lebanon. It is allied to the Hezbollah-led opposition, which is demanding veto power in Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's cabinet.

Reuters SP DB1945