Lebanese security forces said on Sunday they had recaptured a prisoner linked to al-Qaeda, one of six who had escaped from Roumieh prison in Beirut, dpa reported.
"One of the inmates, who was identified as Mauritanian national Medhat Hassan Ahmed and who belongs to the al-Qaeda-linked organization Fatah al-Islam, was captured as he was trying to sneak into a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon," a Lebanese security source said Sunday.
"We are also near to capturing the other five who escaped with Ahmed," the source said without elaborating.
At least two of the inmates who fled the jail in northeast Beirut belong to the Fatah al-Islam group, which battled the Lebanese army in northern Lebanon in 2007.
The six inmates - two Syrians, a Lebanese, a Kuwaiti and two Mauritanians - escaped from the prison on Saturday by abseiling down the walls using bed sheets before mixing with visiting relatives and walking out of the compound with them, an Interior Ministry statement said.
Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi has asked the authorities to investigate the incident.