Syria conflict spurs growing jihadist threat in Lebanon

BEIRUT, Feb 6 (AFP): A string of recent bombings in Lebanon, many of them suicide attacks, has raised fears of a homegrown jihadist threat driven by the Syrian civil war across the border.
Since July, a series of ten bomb blasts have hit Lebanon, six of them involving suicide bombers.
The attacks have been claimed by various jihadist groups, some of them linked to organisations fighting across the border in Syria, including Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The groups say they are targeting Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement for fighting in Syria alongside the regime.
A Lebanese military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the growth of jihadist groups was an inevitable result of the Syrian conflict.
"We were expecting it would spread here. If your neighbour's house is on fire, it's no surprise if your house catches on fire too," he told AFP.
"Terrorism has begun, regardless of the reasons and causes," he said.
The source said the different names of the groups meant little on the ground.
"Their ideology is the ideology of Al-Qaeda, and Al-Qaeda's ideology is known for not accepting the other. All of these groups... feed on this ideology," he said.