BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambian authorities have arrested two people of Lebanese origin for videotaping sensitive government installations and the U.S. embassy, security sources in the West African country said on Friday.

A senior officer in Gambia's National Intelligence Agency told Reuters the Lebanese-born Gambians were arrested on Wednesday for videotaping Gambia's main telecommunications facility, its army barracks and the U.S. embassy in the capital Banjul.

The pair's parents were also detained, their houses searched and their belongings confiscated, the officer said.

He gave no further details and U.S. officials were not immediately able to comment.

Gambia, a former British colony sandwiched on the Atlantic coast between the northern and southern regions of Senegal, is around 95 percent Muslim. Like much of West Africa it has an economically powerful Lebanese business community.

National governments and U.S. security agencies are highly sensitive to perceived threats to U.S. diplomatic missions in Africa since simultaneous bombings on U.S. embassies in East Africa killed more than 200 people in 1998.