Lebanese military prosecutor Saqr Saqr has pressed charges against 15 members of a terrorist organization, which sought to plot and carry out attacks on the country’s armed forces.

“Judge Saqr Saqr has charged 15 people with belonging to an armed group to stage terrorist attacks with the aim of killing soldiers,” a judicial source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The source noted that one of the detainees had managed to place an improvised explosive device (IED) to destroy a military supply convoy. The IED, however, failed to detonate. The suspects were also charged with connection to the al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam militant group.

“We suspect they were coordinating their acts with a Fatah al-Islam ring based in the Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp,” near the southern coastal town of Sidon, the source added.

In November, the Lebanese military prosecutor charged 10 individuals from the al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Islam group, the country’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Judge Saqr Saqr accused the suspects — three Lebanese and seven Palestinians — of spying on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), manufacturing and possessing explosives and weapons, forging identification papers and forming an armed group to perform terrorist acts.

Fierce battles erupted between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese Army in 2007 at the epicenter of the group’s operations, Nahr al-Bared. The fighting killed 400 people, including 168 soldiers, and displaced some 30,000 people from the ruined Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon.