Lebanese al-Qaeda

RFE-RL has a good round-up of the debate over al-Qaeda in Lebanon. It would not surprise me if there were al-Qaeda operating in Lebanon, and I don't think Sunni/Shi'ite differences are enough to prevent them from cooperating with Hizbullah, though Hizbullah's focus on comprehensively promoting the interests of Lebanese Shi'ites means they really don't have that much in common in the world of radical Islamic militants. However, because global terrorist organizations tend not to be tightly defined containers, I think it likely people who were affiliated with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan might be willing to go somewhere else and hook up with a new organization that shared whatever traits led them to join al-Qaeda originally.