BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
BATROUN, Lebanon (AP) -- Arsonists set fire to a north Lebanese mosque Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks on places of worship. The president blamed Israeli sympathizers.
The attack comes at a time of heightened Mideast tension following the U.S.-led strikes in Afghanistan. Many Arabs oppose the military campaign.
Security officials said the fire at the Mohammed Khaled Mosque in Batroun, 35 miles north of the capital, Beirut, was linked to two earlier acts of violence.
Last week, the Saint Elias Maronite Church in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon was bombed, and earlier this month, arsonists attacked a Greek Orthodox church in Tripoli, 15 miles north of Batroun.
The three attacks caused minor damage but no injuries.
President Emile Lahoud accused ``agents who aim to serve Israel'' in the attacks. ``It will not be long until they are brought to justice,'' he added, without elaborating.
Lebanon and the Jewish state technically remain at war even though Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after a tumultuous, 18-year occupation. Israeli forces were once backed by the South Lebanon Army militia, comprising Lebanese nationals.
Lebanon _ which is about 30 percent Christian and 70 percent Muslim _ was also wracked by a sectarian-driven civil war between 1975-90 that left 150,000 people dead.
The mufti of north Lebanon, Sheik Taha al-Sabounji, joined other Sunni Muslim religious leaders in voicing concerns that the attacks could rekindle sectarian tension in Lebanon.
``We have previously warned of the dark hands that try to incite sedition in Lebanon at this sensitive period,'' he said.
Preliminary investigations indicated the arsonists poured fuel inside the mosque and then set it on fire about 3 a.m., authorities said. Anti-Islamic graffiti, including ``all Muslims are terrorists,'' was scrawled on the walls, witnesses said.
Interior Minister Elias Murr warned that ``security is a red line that no one is allowed to cross,'' adding that the attacks aimed to ``incite sedition among Lebanese.''
Batroun is a mainly Christian coastal city on the Beirut-Tripoli highway. Some 10,000 Muslims also live there and in nearby villages.
