BEIRUT – Lebanon on Thursday charged 43 Syrians, including an Islamist commander whose arrest sparked five days of fighting between Islamists and the Lebanese army, with belonging to armed terrorist groups and seeking to establish an Islamic emirate.

A judiciary source said 10 of those charged were in custody, among them 30-year-old Emad Gomaa, who had been a member of the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria, but recently switched allegiance to the ultra-hardline Islamic State.

Lebanon’s army chief said this week that Gomaa’s confessions had led to the arrest of a number of militant cells in different parts of the country.