Lebanon terror summit didn't include al Qaeda leaders, U.S. says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A widely publicized March meeting in Lebanon of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders did not include any senior al Qaeda representatives, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

ABC News reported Monday that the meeting included al Qaeda leaders and was a summit to discuss cooperation on attacks against the United States.

If any al Qaeda members were at the meeting, "which is unclear, then it would have been nobody who could decide anything," one official said.

In fact, U.S. officials said, a major topic of the meeting was cooperation between Hamas and Hezbollah on terrorism against Israel.

Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization, has been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. The group's military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military.

Hamas, in addition to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for Sunday's suicide bombing in Netanya, Israel, that killed three Israelis and wounded 56 others. The Hamas claim was made in an anonymous call to the Agence France Presse news agency in Jerusalem. Neither claim could be verified.

Also on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, Hezbollah is a militant group that battled Israel during its occupation of southern Lebanon.