Islamists sought to turn Lebanon into Iraq - army chief

Lebanon's army chief General Jean Kahwaji talks during a news conference in Beirut August 3, 2014. REUTERS/Hussam Chbaro

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents who seized a Lebanese border town this month planned to turn Lebanon into another Iraq by unleashing sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi'ites that would have endangered the nation's very existence, the army commander said.

General Jean Kahwaji told Reuters that radical Islamists on the march in Iraq and Syria still posed a "great threat" to Lebanon, which was torn apart by a 1975-90 civil war and has been badly buffeted by the Syrian conflict.