They said police had also moved to encircle some offices of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) in Beirut after making some arrests in the northern Koura province.

A police statement confirmed the seizure and 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.

Officials from the group did not immediately comment but its leader Ali Qansou was scheduled to give a news conference later on Thursday.

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

A U.N. team is probing all those attacks, the most devastating of which was a lorry 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.
Five members of SSNP arrested
Police sources on Thursday reported that it has arrested five members of the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) in the northern province of Koura.
One source also said the SSNP office in the Lebanese capital's plush Ras Beirut district was surrounded by police, while members of the Syrian-backed party evacuated another office in the city.

He said the bust was aimed at arresting "suspects in the ongoing investigations in a series of assassination attempts." He refused to elaborate.

It could not be determined if the bust and arrests were related to the Nov. 21 assassination of Industry Minister and member of parliament Pierre Gemayel in Beirut's northern suburb of Metn, an SSNP traditional stronghold.

SSNP has history of violence

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (abbreviated SSNP), often referred to in French as Parti Populaire Syrien) is a nationalist political party in Syria and Lebanon. It advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian national state, including present Syria, Lebanon ,Israel, the Palestinian territories, Cyprus, Jordan & Iraq . The group of countries is referred to as the 'Fertile Crescent with Cyprus as its star'

Founded in Beirut in 1932, the party has played a significant role in Lebanese politics at various points, notably being involved in failed attempted coups in 1949 and 1961. It is now part of the pro-Syrian bloc, along with Amal and Hezbollah, and has only limited popular support in Lebanon. In Syria, the SSNP became a major political force in the early 1950s, but was thoroughly repressed in 1955. It remained organized, and in 2005 was legalized and joined the Baath Party-led National Progressive Front. It is thought to be the largest legal party in Syria apart from the Baath, with perhaps 90,000 members

Source: Ya Libnan, Reuters