Lebanon

[Casey]

Sunday, August 14, 2005Palestinian official indicates Gaza to be center for all terrorists after retreat
["Asked about the transport of Palestinian militants to the Gaza Strip after the Israeli pullout, Zaki said he hoped once Palestine is liberated, it
would become a center for all good men, be they Arab or other."]


Palestinians restructure command in Lebanon
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Friday, August 12, 2005
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_ID=1&article_ID=17572&categ_id=2 (http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_ID=1&article_ID=17572&categ_id=2)
BEIRUT: Brigadier General Sultan Abu al-Aynayn, chief of the Fatah movement in Lebanon, has been promoted to Chief Palestinian Officer in Lebanon, making him the supreme authority over the country's Palestinian community.

Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's central committee currently in Lebanon, has been tasked by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with unifying Palestinian ranks in Lebanon and promoting Palestinian-Lebanese relations.


According to Zaki, the restructuring of Palestinian forces in Lebanon will
see the number of command personnel reduced from 11 to 9.

Zaki announced the first batch of designations during a meeting at the
Rashidieh refugee camp Wednesday. In addition to Abu al-Aynayn's
appointment, Fathi al-Aradat was designated as mobilization and organization officer, Monzer Hamzeh as central finance officer, Rifaat Shanaa as central information officer, Abdel-Mula Rahil as administration officer, and Colonel Aqid Kheiri Abul-Hajj as military committee officer.

Palestinian sources in the South said a second batch of officers will be
announced in the coming days, before Zaki's departure, suggesting the
command's current members will remain.

These are: Khaled Aref who is expected to be given the post of public
relations officer, Amina Jibril as the women federation's officer, and Abu
Ahmad Naef as the Bekaa officer.

The sources revealed three officers, Mahmoud Assadi, Colonel Abu Ali Tanios, and Bilal Aslan, might be put at the disposal of Abu al-Aynayn.

According to circulated information, all military personnel will serve under
the Battalion of the Shatila Martyrs, commanded by leading Palestinian
Colonel Sobhi Abu Arab, with the possibility of designating Colonel Abu
Walid Ashi as his deputy. Both officers are close to Brigadier General Abu
al-Aynayn.

The sources also indicated that if Colonel Mounir Maqdah, the general
supervisor of the Fatah militia, insists on resigning, an official decision
to disband the militia will be made.

If Maqdah decides to stay, he will be made general supervisor of the
Palestinian Armed Struggle or the Palestinian Popular Army.

On the fifth day of his of meetings with senior-level Lebanese politicians
and religious leaders, Zaki reiterated the need for a dialogue that would
serve the interests of both the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples. After meeting with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Zaki said Siniora had ruled

out the possibility of any settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon.

Zaki conveyed Siniora's willingness to settle all security, political and
employment issues and expressed satisfaction with "the beginning of a new era in Lebanese-Palestinian relations."
The Palestinian official also met with Hizbullah's commander for the South, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk.

Asked about the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Zaki said he hoped the initiative was a move toward the implementation of all international resolutions and the Arab peace initiative to establish a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital city.

Commenting on the disarmament of Hizbullah, Zaki reiterated that if the
United States seeks the implementation of international resolutions, it must first consider "The pile of resolutions related to restoring to the
Palestinians their rights."

Addressing the issue of Palestinian labor in Lebanon, Zaki said that
Palestinians do not wish to replace Lebanese workers, but want to be given priority over other foreign workers.

Also on Thursday, Zaki met with Sidon MP Bahia Hariri.
Discussions focused on preparations by Hariri and Sidon MP Osama Saad to hold the National Lebanese-Palestinian Conference in Sidon.

The conference is expected to tackle major issues of common concern among Lebanese and Palestinians in an attempt to address grievances on either side.

Asked about the unification of Palestinian ranks, the Palestinian official
said discussions with members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization led to the scheduling of a meeting for all factions and the preparation of an action plan in case the Lebanese government decides to form a committee to solve issues related to the presence of Palestinians here.

Asked about the transport of Palestinian militants to the Gaza Strip after
the Israeli pullout, Zaki said he hoped once Palestine is liberated, it
would become a center for all good men, be they Arab or other.
Zaki also met with Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani, expressing his concern regarding "judaization" of holy shrines in Jerusalem. Zaki reiterated calls for establishing an authority for the purpose of representing the Palestinian diaspora.

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=26444

[Casey]

Security Worries in Ain Al-Helweh http://www.prc.org.uk/images/spacer.gifAli Huwaidi - Lebanon
http://www.prc.org.uk/images/nine.gif
http://www.prc.org.uk/images/spacer.gif
Ain Al-Helweh camp for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon suffered a security set-back recently, which led to the mobilisation of all the forces, political and security, within the camp, nationalist and Islamist. The mobilization was carried out to impose law and order anew, and ensure the natural movement of the refugees in the camp, amid an air of tension and uncertainty.

The security tension came in the wake of an incident in which Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah, Secretary General of the Peoples’ Committees in the Sidon region was wounded in the foot after a member of Fatah attacked the headquarters of the Peoples’ Committees in the camp. The assailant identified as Hussein Al-Sayed, brandished his military issue pistol and fired inside the committee’s headquarters, objecting to the arrest of his son charged with theft of a mobile phone. This also led to his son sustaining slight injuries.

In the aftermath, a climate of tension overshadowed the camp. Bursting with refugees - a count of up to 75,000 people, crowded into an area not exceeding two square kilometres.

Al-Maqdah was taken to Al-Nidaa’ Al-Insani hospital in the camp, where medical sources stated that his injury was slight and had not affected the bone. The Fatah movement was quick to condemn the incident, calling it the action of an individual. All the Palestinian factions and powers, Islamic and nationalist, as well as prominent personalities and groups in the camp condemned the incident. They regarded it as unnecessarily creating security tensions and diverting people’s attention from the vital issues, especially in light of the events unfolding rapidly in Occupied Palestine.

Hussein Al-Sayed was later detained by forces belonging to “Al-Kifah Al-Musalah” (Palestinian Armed Struggle). A decision was taken to lift his political immunity while the matter was subjected to investigation as to whether he should be turned over to the Lebanese security forces.

This incident comes in the wake of the fire fight between the Fatah movement and the joint security forces on the one side and Jund Al-Sham on the other side, on Friday 29/7/2004. Soon after, a widened meeting was held in the camp on Sunday 31/7/2004 to study the new security developments. The meeting was attended by the Allied Palestinian Forces, the Islamic forces, peoples’ committees, and representatives of the PLO.

The meeting resulted in the formation of a field oversight committee made up of 11 members, comprising three from the Islamic forces, three from the alliance, three from the PLO factions, a member from “Al-Kifah Al-Musalah”, and a member from “Ansar Allah”. The parties agreed to form an investigating committee, which would summons the appearance of persons responsible for provoking the exchange of fire inside the camp.

Observers look with wariness and unease at the events in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, and the need to maintain control over the security situation and not permit their recurrence, especially as in these days eyes are fixed on the internal Palestinian events in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that the sole beneficiary from the Palestinian-Palestinian infighting, whether inside Palestine or abroad, is the Zionist enemy, who puts this to his service, and the service of his regional and international interests.

Palestinian reconciliation and … the reappearance of masked men in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp
The joint effort of the Peoples’ Committees, and the Palestinian Nationalist and Islamic factions was successful in securing a recovery in the wake of the security problem that occurred on Saturday 31/7 after the attack on the headquarters of the Peoples’ Committees in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp by one of the members of Fatah movement, called Hussein Al-Sayed, and injuries sustained by the Secretary General of the Peoples’ Committees in the Sidon area, Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah.

In a gesture of good faith, the family of Al-Maqdah, and to avoid any security escalation which would embroil the people of a single nation in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, held a traditional Palestinian meeting of reconciliation at the home of Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah on Monday 2/8, in which many distinguished guests, and notables from the family participated. At their head, the venerable Sheikh Abu Hani Al-Maqdah, chief of the Fatah militia in Lebanon, Colonel Mounir Al-Maqdah, Abu Ahmed Fadl from Hamas, a delegation from Al-Sa’iqa headed by Abu Emad Al-Hassan, and the presence of a delegation from Fatah including Maher Shabaita, in charge of the Ain Al-Helweh branch, and Khaled Al-Shaib, and Muhammad Ali. From the Islamic forces, Sheikh Jamal Khattab, Abu Tareq from Al-Ansar group, Shakeeb Al-‘Aina from Islamic Jihad, Adnan Rifa’i from the Peoples’ Committee, and members from the “Palestinian Oversight Committee”.

Sheikh Abu Hani who was the first to speak, pointed to the pardon of Hussein Al-Sayed, who had shot and wounded Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah, on condition that he not raise his weapon in the face of anyone but the Zionist enemy. Mounir Al-Maqdah added that the Al-Maqdah family “pardoned and forgave from the position of caring for the security and welfare of the camp and its inhabitants, not muddying the issues, and not granting an opportunity for those who gamble on creating security tensions within the camp, because this would present a free service to the Zionist enemy”.

After that Abu Ahmed Fadl spoke of “the challenges faced by the Palestinian people at this critical time, especially in light of the situation in Palestine, and so what is required of us at this time is the highest levels of awareness and caution”. He called for overcoming the pains of the wounds of the moment, and to not give the opportunity to those who were intent on provoking Palestinian infighting.

The chief of “Al-Kifah Al-Musalah” (Palestinian Armed Struggle) in the camp, Colonel Muhammad Ali, gave a speech in which he pointed out that Hussein Al-Sayed had been placed at the disposal of the Al-Maqdeh family, emphasising that what he had done was wrong, and that the pardon and forgiveness shown, would be met by a deterring moral punishment on the part of the Fatah movement, such that he would not repeat this again, because harming others was forbidden, as it only serves as an opportunity to those intent on interfering with the security of the camp”.

At the time when the efforts to bring under control the security problem, had been successful, another new security problem reared its head in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp. Its features became more apparent in the early hours of 3/8, with talk of the reappearance of masked elements, who would appear in the first hours of daybreak in the alleyways of the camp, and then melt away, with no-one able to identify them.

Information gained told of an incident where a man belonging to Fatah, living in the Barracks refugee complex, neighbouring Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, had thrown a hand grenade and fired rounds of bullets into the air from his weapon, in the direction of one of the masked men, who had been spotted in the early hours moving between the Barracks complex and Al-Saf-Saf neighbourhood. This provoked a state of fear and terror in the complex, and a security mobilisation in which all the factions in the camp participated, with the intention of containing this phenomenon, through awareness of its seriousness, and seeking to eradicate it.

There is no doubt that the sole beneficiary of this train of security incidents is the Zionist enemy. Especially, as these incidents principally target Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, the largest of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, which represents the Palestinian point of reference for the presence of all the different political persuasions, nationalists and Islamists.

With the start of the reappearance of this phenomenon, after it had been stamped out years before, no more is required than to raise the level of awareness and attention to the plots against the Palestinian cause and the scheming taking place in the shadows.
http://www.prc.org.uk/data/aspx/d1/711.aspx

[Casey]

Sorry, back tracking a little here, as I have a question.

Does anyone have any insight regarding the following, from the first article in the thread dated August 05?

I can't find anything further.



According to circulated information, all military personnel will serve under
the Battalion of the Shatila Martyrs, commanded by leading Palestinian
Colonel Sobhi Abu Arab, with the possibility of designating Colonel Abu
Walid Ashi as his deputy. Both officers are close to Brigadier General Abu
al-Aynayn.

The sources also indicated that if Colonel Mounir Maqdah, the general supervisor of the Fatah militia, insists on resigning, an official decision to disband the militia will be made.

If Maqdah decides to stay, he will be made general supervisor of the Palestinian Armed Struggle or the Palestinian Popular Army.

[Vancouver]

I'm not sure the following is an answer, but...

Will Palestinian fighters leave Ein Hilweh for Gaza? Gaza is largely under Hamas control, and Ein Hilweh is on the dole from Muslim charities and the UN. Hamas fought the Israelis in Gaza when Abbas's people ran away from them. The Lebanese Pallies are even less credible than Abbas's Pallies. Most Palestinians in the armed groups at Ein Hilweh were born there and have never set foot in Israel or Gaza or the West Bank. And Hamas can see enough chaotic PLO presence in Gaza already. So I reckon a mob of new Palestinians in Gaza is unlikely. One or two salafist star terrorists might go there though.

Since Arafat's death, Palestinian support for a secular Palestine has been declining and, to my consternation, Hamas is getting more religious. Also, the rampant corruption of Arafat's regime is finally becoming undeniable; this profits Hamas.

This signature appeared in another thread recently:
حماس الإخواني
Hamas al-Ikhwani, suggesting some sort of Ikhwan or Salafist agenda. But it could be just one individual posing as a group, or somebody in Hamas putting his own spin on things.

[Casey]

Iraq al Qaeda claims missile attack on Israel

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23274

[Casey]

Second warning.

TERRORISM: AL-QAEDA INSPIRED GROUP THREATENS LEBANON

Beirut, 24 Jan. (AKI) - Threats to use car bombs against UN premises, embassies, security forces and Palestinian leaders in Lebanon have been made by a previously unknown group calling itself "The Black Tigers - the millitary wing of al-Qaeda in Lebanon". A statement released by the group Tuesday, and seen by Adnkronos International (AKI), threatens imminent attacks against a wide range of targets.

"We will strike with car bombs all the offices of the UN inside and outside the [Palestinian refugee camp] Sabra and Shatila and we will hit many foreign embassies" says one of the ten points in the 'first statement' by the group.

"For some time we have been committed to entering Sabra and Shatila, a 'symbol' for Palestinians in Lebanon and known world wide".

The camp was the scene of one of the most brutal incidents in Lebanon, shortly after Israel's invasion in 1982. Israeli-allied Lebanese Christian Phalange militiamen rampaged through the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, killing hundreds, possibly thousands of people.

"It [the camp] needs reform and this warning must be taken seriously. Today we are admonishing, while tomorrow we will proceed with the elimination of tens [of people] as God is our witness" the statement reads.

The statement by the group claimning to represent al-Qaeda in Lebanon goes on to issue a series of warnings; against Lebanese army officials "not to infiltrate the Palestinian camps with their informers and urging Palestinian factions in Lebanon to 'return to Islam because their leaders are an easy target for our warriors".

There is also a threat against Walid ben Talal [a Saudi prince with Lebanese citizenship and a pan-Arab media magnate] and anyone working with him - if they enter the camps, it says, they will be poisoned.

As well as political and security threats, there are also "moral" warnings; to women from the camps not to go to the red light areas in Beirut, frequented by foreign intelligence agents; to outlets selling alcohol, that their premises will be blown up; to pirate CD vendors; and to the camp pharmacy accused of handing out 'drugs' and giving medicines without prescriptions.

The unknown group also names some of the people they want to eliminate; collaborators of Abbas Zaki, the PA minister for Palestinian refugees; Ghassan Abdallah, a leading Palestinian official in Lebanon, and Khaled Aref, the Palestinian movement Fatah's representative in southern Lebanon.

"Ulema (muslim clerics) who do not respect their faith and who steal our goods" are also cited as objectives, as are Lebanese security officials , "who exploited our fighting brothers who went to Syria and Iraq" and "Were paid more than 800,000 dollars".

The message concludes with a call for the Lebanese state to support the 'brother combatants" who want to go to Iraq and "fight the infidels".

For some years there have been suspicions about thte possible presence of al-Qaeda in Lebanon, and in particular in the camps, like Ein Hilwe, near Sidon, where the Israelis allege that there are elements of Bin LAden's network coming from Afghanistan.

In 2004, a plot for an attack against the Italian embassy in Beirut, was attributed to a presumed al-Qaeda cell.

Last December the Lebanese security forces arrested13 people -seven Syrians, four Lebanese, a Saudi and a Palestinian - suspected of being members of the al-Qaeda network and found in possession of arms and plans for future attacks.

(Lto/Aki)

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.256644628&par=0

[Casey]

Lebanon (archive)

http://afghanistanwar.com/showthread.php?t=12892&page=3&pp=15

[Casey]

Arrested al-Qaeda members in Lebanon admit plans for infrastructure
Jan 31, 2006, 19:38 GMT

Beirut - The ongoing investigation into the emergence of an al-Qaeda terror network in Lebanon has revealed that members of the cell had plans to establish a military infrastructure in Lebanon with direct links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Lebanese security sources said Tuesday.

Lebanese security forces uncovered a terrorist network in December 2005 consisting of 13 people suspected of belonging to al- Qaeda and charged them with planning to carry out terrorist operations in various parts of Lebanon.

According to the sources, the arrested members confessed to recruiting Lebanese and Palestinian volunteers from the northern port city of Tripoli, the eastern Bekaa valley and the 12 Palestinian refugee camps which are scattered across Lebanon.

The Lebanese police confiscated weapons, including hand grenades, bombs and machineguns from the arrested militants.

The Lebanese authorities expressed fears that the al-Qaeda network had taken a decision to form a base in Lebanon. In this regard the Internal Security Forces had re-enforced their anti-terrorism office, especially after Lebanon was hit with fifteen bomb blasts in 2005, including one which killed former premier Rafik Hariri in February.

The sources said that some of those arrested confessed they had been preparing to carry out attacks in Lebanon similar to ones currently taking place in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda has rarely launched attacks in Lebanon, although it has used allied factions to recruit scores of volunteers among Lebanese and Palestinian refugees who went to Iraq to fight.

Recently an Iraqi group affiliated with Zarqawi claimed responsibility for three rockets fired from south Lebanon into Israel.

Lebanon is currently facing one of its worst political and security crises since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Last year's assassination of Hariri in a massive bomb explosion in Beirut sent shock waves through the country. Since then a wave of assassinations and assassination attempts have swept Lebanon targeting mainly anti-Syrian political figures and journalists.

The UN commission of inquiry into Hariri's murder suspected the involvement of Lebanese and Syrian security agencies in Hariri's assassination. The anti-Syrian Lebanese opposition have blamed the Syrian regime for the blasts, a charge Damascus has denied.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1093694.php/Arrested_al-Qaeda_members_in_Lebanon_admit_plans_for_infrastru cture

[Casey]

Blast near Lebanese army post after al Qaeda warning

Date: Feb 01, 2006 - 11:02 PM
Reuters

BEIRUT - A bomb exploded near a Lebanese army barracks in Beirut early on Thursday, destroying a car and slightly wounding one soldier, security sources said.

The sources said a local newspaper had received a telephone call from someone claiming to speak on behalf of al Qaeda and declaring that a security target would be bombed in Beirut in retaliation for the arrest last month of 13 group members.

The explosion occurred some three hours later at around 2 a.m. (7 p.m. EST) outside the Fakhreddine Barracks in Ramlet al-Baida district of the capital, shattering windows in nearby buildings.

The sources earlier said the blast was caused by a car bomb but they later said it had been caused by an explosive charge near or under the car.

Lebanon has been rocked by more than a dozen explosions in the past 12 months, the largest of which was a truck bomb that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 22 others in Beirut on February 14.

A U.N. inquiry has implicated senior Syrian security officials and their Lebanese allies in the murder. Three anti-Syrian politicians and journalists have been killed and two wounded since in separate smaller explosions.

The Lebanese authorities last month said they arrested 13 members of al Qaeda and sources say they had been setting up a network for the group in the country.

The group had been believed to have recruited Lebanese and Palestinian refugees to fight U.S.-led forces in Iraq under the leadership of Abu Moussab al-Zarqawi, the sources said. But in recent months there have been indications that the group was stepping up its activities in Lebanon.

Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for a Katyusha rocket attack against northern Israel from south Lebanon in late December. But though Lebanese security sources believe pro-Syrian Palestinian guerrillas were behind that attack, they say Zarqawi's willingness to take credit for it showed he might have an agenda in Lebanon.

Copyright 2006 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://abcnews.go.com/International/print?id=1567695

[Casey]

'Al-Qaeda Tries to Settle in Lebanon'
By Anadolu News Agency (aa), Paris
Published: Saturday, February 11, 2006
zaman.com


Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat said al-Qaeda terror organization has been trying to settle in Lebanon for the last few months.

On Saturday, Fatfat told the French paper, Liberation, that they are aware of the Qaeda efforts in this direction; the network infiltrates its fighters or it collects its supporters inside the country.

Appointed in replacement of Hassan Sabeh, who was the former youth minister but resigned last week due to the cartoon protests in the capital Beirut, Fatfat said, "A short while ago, we collapsed the two groups suspected for affiliation with al-Qaeda network."

Lebanese minister also informed about the arrests of 13 people from different Middle Eastern countries planning to attack Lebanon. And five more, who attacked the military positions, were also detained, he added.

The judicial sources reported on the Syrian, Lebanese, Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, and Palestinian citizens among the arrested a month ago.


[12:42:00]

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20060211&hn=29665

[Casey]

Al Qaeda… in Lebanon

By Olivier Guitta
16 Feb 2006

It's been a year since former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in downtown Beirut. Since then, Lebanon has erupted to the forefront of the news: the Cedar revolution, the Syrian Army's withdrawal and the political assassinations of anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders. But if that was not enough for a small country that has been suffering for the past thirty years, a new dangerous player is emerging: Al Qaeda.

In an explosive interview with the French daily Liberation, Ahmed Fatfat, the new incoming Lebanese Interior Minister, revealed details about Al Qaeda's presence in Lebanon. Fatfat noted:

"For the past forty-five months, Al-Qaeda has been trying to settle in Lebanon. The organization infiltrates combatants and recruits on the ground. We recently dismantled two groups suspected of belonging to this network. One month ago, we stopped thirteen individuals, coming from various countries of the Middle East,* who were preparing attacks inside the country. We also have just stopped five people implied in attacks against military positions."

Regarding the December rocket attacks against Israel from the south of the country that Zarqawi (Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq) claimed responsibility for, Fatfat confirmed it was indeed the work of Al Qaeda. He added that it was an attack carried out by the Palestinian terror group FPLP-GC based out of Damascus, but financed directly by Al Qaeda. Finally Fatfat affirmed that FPLP-GC answers directly to Damascus and that a branch of Al Qaeda could be manipulated by Syrian security services.

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Seyassah of February 9 seconded Fatfat's assertions. Quoting an Iraqi source, the journalist stated that Al-Qaeda is leading a large infiltration operation inside Lebanon, where it already has sleeper cells.

"It seems that the Iraqi Al-Qaïda branch has been thinking for a long time to transform Lebanon into a strengthened base, and to make in particular the area of Tripoli (in the north of Lebanon) a new Afghanistan since several of its bases are in this city", specified the source. He added that the interrogations carried out by the Lebanese police force of 13 Al-Qaïda members brought precise details on the infiltration operation, carried out under the direct supervision of Zarkawi. "Some 700 experienced militants of the terrorist network would have left Iraq for Lebanon", adds this anonymous witness.

Lastly, when questioned by Al Hayat about Al Qaeda's presence in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Shia terror group Hezbollah which controls much of the south of the country, did not deny it. He pointed to the possible implication in the December attack of elements in the Ain Al Hilweh Palestinian camp "who have pledged their loyalty to al-Zarqawi". He acknowledged that it was a "dangerous and unacceptable" situation but thought it was "unlikely" that Hezbollah would clash with Al Qaeda in the future. Nonetheless, Hezbollah must not be happy about Al Qaeda's settling in Hezbollah land and a Sunni-Shia conflict might be brewing.

Also: if Syria is really behind this Al Qaeda branch, does it mean then the de facto end of the relation between Damascus and Hezbollah?

Lebanon is already one of the most complicated and dangerous places in the world. And with the addition of Al Qaeda to the equation, things might even get more out of control. It will be interesting to see how things develop. But for one of the first times since September 11, the holy alliance of Sunni and Shia terror groups against the West might turn out to be not-so-strong after all. Lebanon is one of the most crucial countries in the war on terror; it's not by chance that everything started in Beirut in 1983 when the US and French Marine barracks were blown up killing 241 Americans and 58 French.

Olivier Guitta is a foreign affairs consultant based in Washington DC and a TCS contributor.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=021606E

[Casey]

Al Qaeda in Lebanon

18/03/2006
By Thair Abbas

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- Worrying signs emerging from Lebanon about the growth of al Qaeda, have triggered a general unease and anxiety in security and diplomatic circles. The wave of bombings that targeted Beirut and the South and the arrest for several cells whose members have confessed to belonging to al Qaeda, in addition to Abu Musab al Zarqawi claiming responsibility for an attack on Israeli settlements using Katyusha rockets, have all heightened the fear that al Qaeda is seeking a permanent base in Lebanon. Ahmad Fatfat, the Interior Minister, said he had "impressions" that al Qaeda was seeking to increase its activity in Lebanon. Leading figures in the March 14 coalition went as far as speaking about training camps in northern Lebanon for Sunni militants.


Security sources have indicated that a number of extremists, Lebanese and Palestinian, who left for Iraq a few months ago to join the insurgency and fight against the Americans, have returned after strengthening their ties with main leaders in al Qaeda. These militants might have even received orders to return to Lebanon to engage in jihad and form a key base for al Qaeda as a basis for "al Qaeda in Bilad al Sham" (al Qaeda in Syria). These sources stressed that extremists were inclined to announce the creation of "Wilayat Lubnan" or the province of Lebanon, with members drawn from several Islamist fundamentalist organizations. The security forces' recent announcement that they had discovered a militant cell with 13 members from different nationalities, including Lebanese, supports this view. In addition, the role of these extremist groups in mobilizing Ahmad Abu Adas remains to be unclear. He appeared in a video recording and claimed responsibility for the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in a huge explosion on 14 February 2005.


As the Interior Minister and the authorities continue to claim that they have no reliable information about the growth of al Qaeda in Lebanon, experts have derided their remarks because "there is no ground for such a movement to grow" in multi-confessional Lebanon. They also point out that Hezbollah would not allow these groups to gain a foothold in Lebanon. Instead, they accuse Syria of exploiting this "fundamentalist front" which it once controlled through its presence in Lebanon.


Western diplomats have been observing al Qaeda's activities in Lebanon with serious attention. Sources told Asharq al Awsat the US has asked Beirut, as well as other capitals, to keep a tight rein on the movement of individuals across its borders but denied that it had offered the Lebanese authorities electronic tools to monitor the crossings.


In a report, parts of which were seen by Asharq al Awsat, a western embassy in Beirut indicated, "groups [were] sending fighters to Iraq from the Palestinian refugee camps and elsewhere" across Lebanon. It warned against the dangers of "these groups becoming loose in Lebanon", adding "It is difficult to believe that the Syrians were unaware of the activities of these groups, especially as some of them were very close to the Syrian intelligence headquarters in Anjar." The report also revealed that "Syria allowed these groups more freedom that they would enjoy in the country itself, fearing they would be exploited to "destabilize the region."


Dr. Radwan al Sayyid, professor of Islamic Studies at the Lebanese University, rejected the premise al Qaeda was active in Lebanon because Hezbollah would stand in its way. In Lebanon, he said, "We have Palestinian and Lebanese extremists and fundamentalist militants some referred to as Salafi, which espouse violence. They are divided into two groups: The first group is disorganized and its members have, for the most part, been caught and are currently languishing in Lebanese jails because they do not cooperate with the authorities. The second is under the control of Syria's security services and it is exploiting it according to its wishes. Its members are dormant and do not act unless they are ordered to do so by Syria."


However, four months ago, a new leadership emerged, "under the leadership of the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command Ahmad Jibril in support for the Syrian security forces under the banner of "al Qaeda". They include many Arabs who came in their thousands to Syria to cross illegally into Iraq. Starting six months ago, none of them have crossed the border. Those who insist on joining the insurgency clash with the Syrian security forces. They are the ones Syria publicly announces."


"I do not believe there is such a thing called al Qaeda. What I see is the naming of Syria's intelligence services and those working with them, including some who are being naively exploited. There is a minority that is politicized and they are not unequivocally Salafis, including Hashim Minqarah who belonged to Harakat al Tawhid and was detained by the Syrians in 1985 and released in 2000 after the intervention of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati. These individuals where chased by the Lebanese and Syrian authorities and then exploited for their own benefit."


According to al Sayyid, no more than 500 Lebanese are currently cooperating with the Syrian forces, in addition to several Palestinians who he described as "enthusiastic young men who support Osama bin Laden". Al Qaeda, he said, had two main goals: a tactical aim, which is to cause trouble for the Americans and a strategic aim, which is to establish an Islamic state. In light of this, it would not be able to succeed in Lebanon "because it cannot achieve a certain reputation unless it fights Israel. This is impossible and it appears that it does not even have the intention to attack Israel." He described the current developments as the acts of a number of enthusiastic men and a general atmosphere controlled by the Syrians.


Home to some 80 thousand Palestinian refugees, the Ain al Hilweh camp, on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, lies outside the control of the Lebanese government. According to media reports, it is the main center for al Qaeda in Lebanon, with the extremist Asbat al Ansar (the League of Partisans) group joining forces with al Qaeda. It is certain that this group is the main source of Palestinian fighters in Iraq but it has yet to pledge publicly allegiance to al Qaeda, perhaps because it does not want to embarrass other Palestinian factions. Its statements announce the deaths of fighters in Iraq and the muezzins around the camp have "celebrated" the announcements of fallen fighters in Iraq.


Inside Ain al Hilweh, one clearly notices the presence of an Islamist current sympathetic to the Iraqi insurgency. Some vendors hang the portraits of the deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in their shops publicly announce their allegiance to "Sheikh Osama", or Osama bin Laden, whom they see as a "great Islamic leader". The internet is the main communication tool between al Qaeda and affiliates. Visitors to certain Islamist websites can see pictures of "the martyrs of the camp" prominently displayed.


When Ziad al Jarrah was named as one of the September 11 2001 hijackers, his family who live in the western Bekaa valley, refused to believe he was guilty and, instead, accused the CIA of drumming up charges against him. In the wake of the attacks, politicians and the inhabitants of the region adopted a unified position and denied any links between Ziad and al Qaeda. However, unanimous tip offs to the media painted a different picture: Ziad has traveled to Afghanistan from where he returned a different person. A number of stories later emerged about the popular support al Qaeda was said to be enjoying in the area.


The first real discussion of the presence of Islamist extremists in Lebanon with foreign ties took place in 1998 when unknown assailants murdered 4 Lebanese judges in Sidon. In 2000, the army clashed with Islamist militants in al Dinniyah, east of Tripoli in north Lebanon. Afterwards, the star of Abu Mihjin, founder of Asbat al Ansar, rose quickly. He mysteriously disappeared from Ain al Hilweh and it was claimed he had moved to Iraq, prior to the US led invasion in 2003, to join al Qaeda in Iraq. His group continues to send fighters to join the insurgency against what they refer to as "the Crusaders and the rejectionists". In 2003, a militant cell, which planned to bomb and target foreign embassies across Lebanon and to train men to send them to Iraq through Syria was uncovered. Lately, it was announced that two new cells with links to al Qaeda were discovered in Beirut and Sidon.

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=4176

[Casey]

Al Qaeda's Master Plan
The Kuwaiti daily Al-Seyassah of February 9 seconded Fatfat's assertions. Quoting an Iraqi source, the journalist stated that Al-Qaeda is leading a large infiltration operation inside Lebanon, where it already has sleeper cells.

"It seems that the Iraqi Al-Qaeda branch has been thinking for a long time to transform Lebanon into a strengthened base, and to make in particular the area of Tripoli (in the north of Lebanon) a new Afghanistan since several of its bases are in this city," specified the source. He added that the interrogations carried out by the Lebanese police force of 13 Al-Qaeda members brought precise details on the infiltration operation, carried out under the direct supervision of Zarqawi. "Some 700 experienced militants of the terrorist network would have left Iraq for Lebanon," adds this anonymous witness.

Lastly, when questioned by Al Hayat about Al Qaeda's presence in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah -- leader of the Lebanese Shia terror group Hezbollah which has de facto control of the south of the country -- did not deny the infiltration. He pointed to the possible implication in the December attack of elements in the Ain Al Hilweh Palestinian camp "who have pledged their loyalty to al-Zarqawi." He acknowledged that it was a "dangerous and unacceptable" situation but thought it was "unlikely" that Hezbollah would clash with Al Qaeda in the future. Nonetheless, Hezbollah must not be happy about Al Qaeda's settling in Hezbollah land.
http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=609335&highlight=Qaeda%27s+Master+Plan%22#post609335


PART 1: Talking with the 'terrorists'
03/31/06
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Mousawi's presentation reflected his personal and his movement's pessimistic views on the region's future and on the US campaign against terrorism. Most prominently, while he was "quite careful and even cagey" (in the words of one delegate) on his movement's ties with Iran, he was less so on Hezbollah's vulnerabilities to "the Khawarij trend". Noting that prominent "Salafist and takfiri websites" had "actually marked Hezbollah leaders for assassination", Mousawi said these "jihadist movements", including al-Qaeda, "actually represent a greater threat to my people and to the Palestinian population than they do to Western interests. [6] This is the real danger, and the United States needs to recognize it."

The reason for such targeting, Mousawi explained, is that "the jihadists think we are too moderate, too willing to participate in democratic processes - which they view as just another colonialist plot promoted by the Americans to dominate our region".

http://worldanalysis.net/postnuke/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=366

[Casey]

Lebanon thwarts plot to assassinate Hezbollah chief
Web posted at: 4/11/2006 2:16:53
Source ::: Agencies

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities have arrested eight Lebanese and one Palestinian suspected of planning to assassinate Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shi’ite group Hezbollah, security officials said yesterday.

The assassination of the head of armed Shi’ite fundamentalist party was planned for April 28 when Nasrallah was due to attend the next session of Lebanon’s ongoing national dialogue, the daily As Safir said, citing security sources. Lebanon’s intelligence service and military broke the network last week, it added.

The cell “had been tracking Nasrallah’s movements for March and April and had put in place a thorough plan to assassinate Nasrallah during the next meeting of the national dialogue.” The attack would have been carried out against the Hezbollah chief’s vehicle convoy and would have involved anti-tank rockets.

The national dialogue, bringing together factions across Lebanon’s political spectrum, started meeting in March with the aim of healing national divisions and tackling sensitive issues like the continued existence of Hezbollah’s armed wing.

Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal said authorities had informed the group of the plot. “We can confirm this,” he said. “Lebanese authorities have informed us that they arrested a group accused of planning to assassinate Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.”

The security sources told As-Safir the group had a sophisticated structured and had received “advanced training in weapons handling”. The paper gave no information about the cell’s affiliation or motivations. A senior security official said: “The plot was at an early stage. It had not reached the phase of implementation.”

The men were charged with attempting to carry out terrorist acts, a prosecution source said, adding that five other members of the same group were still at large. The eight Lebanese suspects were related to each other, officials said. Security forces seized an unknown quantity of weapons with the suspects, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said.

Lebanon’s Sunni and Shi’ites are at loggerheads over key issues dividing the country, mainly the fate of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who is under pressure to quit, and the disarming of the Hezbollah guerrilla group.

The Sunnis, led by parliament majority leader Saad Al Hariri, want to remove Lahoud from power and question, albeit tacitly, the need of Hezbollah’s armed guerrillas six years after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon.

The Shi’ite group, supported by Syria and Iran, backs Lahoud and say it will not relinquish its weapons even if the Jewish state pulled out from an occupied border territory that Lebanon claims but the UN says it is an Israeli-occupied Syrian area.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=April2006&file=World_News2006041121653.xml

[Casey]

Salafi-Jihadists a new force in Lebanon

Some believe the infiltration of militant Islamic ideology in Lebanon comes not only from outside sources, but from social conditions of the area as well.

By Murad Al-Shishani for The Jamestown Foundation (6/4/06)

In July 2005, French scholar Olivier Roy argued that Iraq and Palestine are not factors in the prevalence of the Salafi-Jihadist movement. He based his argument on the fact that there are no Iraqi or Palestinian members in the Salafi-Jihadist organizations. Now, however, this argument must be reconsidered. Afghan authorities have expressed their concern over the "hordes of Iraqi suicide bombers" following the arrest of Noman Eddin Majid, aged 35 years, from Diyala governorate as he was trying to sneak into Afghanistan (al-Hayat, 3 February). In addition, the perpetrators of the Amman bombing on 9 November 2005, and most of those in the recent disbanded terrorist cell in Amman as well, were Iraqis (Terrorism Focus, 7 March). As for the Palestinians, the attention is becoming increasingly focused on Lebanon with its Palestinian refugee camps, particularly Ain El-Hilweh, instead of the West Bank. (Approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon.)

While the recruitment of Salafi-Jihadists in Lebanon is not restricted to Palestinians and includes some Lebanese nationals, young men from refugee camps are more fertile material for recruitment. Following the news of the arrest of Salafi-Jihadists in Lebanon and the announcement made by the movement of its responsibility for blowing up a location for the Lebanese army on February 1 (the movement delivered the threat through a phone call to the Sada al-Balad newspaper a day before, according to the paper), Lebanese authorities arrested 31 suspected jihadists. In light of this claim of responsibility and the arrests, it is important to examine the forms of recruitment that the Salafi-Jihadists use in Lebanon (al-Watan, 8 February).

It seems that the activities of the Salafi-Jihadist movement focus on the poor Lebanese and Palestinian communities. The increasing connection with the Iraq factor is due to two reasons: the unattractiveness of the secular Palestinian organizations in the refugee camps compared to the increasing attraction of the Islamist groups, and the waning control of the Future/Hariri Party over the Sunni community.
Palestinian refugee camps

Ain El-Hilweh refugee camp was the base for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the 1980s. The camp was a stronghold for the "Palestinian revolution" organizations, and it remains to this day under the power of Palestinians to the extent that the Lebanese army does not venture inside it (al-Hayat, 26 February). The power of the secular organizations, however, is moving to the Islamist organizations, especially since the secular organizations have been implicated in cases of corruption and have not met the demands of the Palestinians. The commander of Fatah's militias in Lebanon, Colonel Mounir Maqdah, proposed "forming a Lebanese-Palestinian military force to eradicate this fundamental group [from Ain El-Hilweh]." This clearly indicates the increase in the power of Islamist groups and the Palestinian organizations' fear of losing their control, especially when newspaper sources talk of "returnees from Iraq" who aim at declaring "Lebanon's loyalty" to the "Foundation of Jihad in Iraq" (al-Sharq al-Awsat, 4 February).

An indication of the spread of the influence of the Salafi-Jihadist movements amidst Palestinians in Lebanon, promoted by the "returnees from Iraq," is what Hazem Amin in al-Hayat calls the "al-Qaida terminology." The volunteers in Iraq are in touch with their parents in a way that connects the parents with information about jihad activities. This terminology is so widespread that Shiites are now described as "heretics" (al-Hayat, 25 January), which is a new feature in the Lebanese sectarian system. In addition, death threats were made by the al-Qaida organization in Bilad al-Sham to Shiite Lebanese figures (al-Sharq al-Awsat, 27 July 2005).

While this is the situation of Palestinians in Lebanon, the influence of the Salafi-Jihadist movement is not restricted to them. There are Sunni Lebanese nationals who have headed to Iraq to volunteer in fighting the Americans (al-Hayat, 26 January). Likewise, there was a transformation in the village of Majdal Anjar, which used to be the stronghold of "traditional Salafism," since the arrival of Abu Muhammad al-Lubnani, who later became a close companion of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after he reached Iraq with his 16-year-old son, and where they both later died. Abu Muhammad al-Lubnani was Mustafa Ramadan. He began to spread his jihadist ideas since his return from Denmark around 2003 (al-Hayat, 26 January), and was able to form a nucleus for the jihadist movement. The influence of those ideas applies to the Sunnis in Lebanon - not just to the Palestinians.
Sunni Lebanese

Lebanon-based Addiyar newspaper indicated on 7 February, following the burning of the Danish Embassy and the riots in Beirut, that Saad Hariri is losing control over the Sunni scene by eliminating the subsidies for the poor among the Sunnis and making the al-Mustaqbal movement exclusive for the rich and powerful. As a result, Salafi-Jihadist movements (al-Qaida, Usbat al-Ansar, Jund al-Sham) and the Islamic Liberation Party are, according to Addiyar, now controlling 90 percent of the Sunni scene (Addiyar, 7 February).

Despite the reliability of the 90 per cent figure, the Salafi-Jihadist movement is attracting a host of poor Sunnis who were badly affected after the death of Rafiq Hariri. The media always spoke of the role Hariri played in restoring the balance between the Sunnis and the other sects in Lebanon. This becomes evident if we review the backgrounds of the people who volunteered in or returned from Iraq; they were mostly poor who did odd jobs like selling coffee and steamed beans in the street, or were unemployed in the first place.
Hezbollah's role

The developments related to the Salafi-Jihadist presence in Lebanon show that those influenced by the ideology will begin to move out of the Palestinian refugee camps and into southern Lebanon. This development means that Hezbollah will be threatened in its historically-controlled region. For Hezbollah, this development comes at a time when the party is under pressure to disarm and to end ties with Syria. This means that Hezbollah will not allow the Salafi-Jihadists to extend into their influenced region. While Salafi-Jihadists consider Shiites as infidels, on 23 February Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah listed, for the first time, the "Jama'at al-Takfeer" (Excommunication Groups, which is how officials in Arab governments describe Salafi-Jihadists), as one of the three beneficiaries of the bombings of Shiite shrines in Iraq, along with the United States and Israel.
Conclusion

The above factors show that the Salafi-Jihadist presence and movement into Lebanon is facing many obstacles, but is also becoming a new force in the country. At the same time, however, the socio-political developments in Lebanon are creating the conditions for that presence.

While Sunnis in Lebanon were historically led by old families like al-Huss, Karami and al-Sulh, from the 1990s until his assassination in 2005, Rafiq al-Hariri became the most prominent leader of Sunnis and enjoyed their support. That is why he was described as the "most Sunni personality" (al-Jazeera, 13 February). One of the most important factors in the popularity of Hariri among Sunnis was his concentration on the grassroots level by helping poor Lebanese.

Among the implications of the assassination was that Sunnis have become prone to polarization by different ideologies, among which is the Salafi-Jihadist ideology. Due to the positions of the above-mentioned political forces - such as the Palestinian organizations and Hezbollah - there will be conflict between them and Salafi-Jihadists. The result will be that the spread of the Salafi-Jihadist ideology in Lebanon will become a destabilizing factor in the country.

This article originally appeared in Terrorism Focus, published by The Jamestown Foundation in Washington, DC., at (www.Jamestown.org). The Jamestown Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan organization supported by tax-deductible contributions from corporations, foundations, and individuals.

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=15391

[Casey]

al Qaeda in Palestine

http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27984

[Casey]

bump

[Casey]

Zionist planes bombing included Beirut Airport

General : Arab and Islamic world : Thursday, 17 Jumada another 1427 e-13 July 2006 m last update 6:30 p. Mecca Time

Islammemo : In an urgent news just said Al-Jazeera satellite channel that the Zionist occupation planes bombed included the Beirut Airport.
This is not known yet further details about the incident, which came in the wake of the kidnapping of Lebanese Hezbollah Ljundien Shionien and eight others were killed yesterday, Wednesday, Day.

This has led the Zionist Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Lebanese government responsible for the attacks by Hezbollah, and the responsibility of the Israeli soldiers were returned abductees to 'Israel', With the Lebanese government announced after a cabinet meeting that it 'did not know and does not bear responsibility or adopt what has been done and is on the Lebanese border International'.

[Mike]

Israel publishes Alpatriot batteries in the town of Haifa
Israel has intensified its air raids on the southern suburb of Beirut and many other installations in Lebanon.
The Israeli press sources indicated that the Israeli air force attacked ten buildings and towers in Beirut suburb.
The sources added that Israeli missiles crashed today in the upper Galilee is the dawn of a type previously announced that Hezbollah owned.


Israeli fighter aircraft F

The senior military leaders in Israel that Hizbullah party is much more than expected and that the fighting will continue for days.



On the other hand, Hizbullah shelled the city of Tiberias today for the first time during the hours of the day more than once.



Tiberias and away from southern Lebanon, about 30 km.



It fell today dozens of Katyusha rockets on many cities, towns and Jewish fell in some Arab towns.



In the evolution of a catchy, Israeli sources announced that Israel had erected a number of anti-missile batteries Alpatriot.



It is noteworthy that these rockets were used to repel Alblastirih missiles were fired at Israel from Iraq in the Gulf War I.

God Imhaki on the floor oh Israel Amin

[Casey]

'Hizbollah' threatens targeting petrochemical installations' Israeli '

Year : the Arab and Islamic world : Sunday, 20 Jumada another 1427 e-16 July 2006 m last update 11:20 Mecca Time r

Islammemo : a source in the 'Party of God' that the Lebanese resistance has missiles aimed at petrochemical plant in the coastal town of Haifa. warning 'Israel' of committing follies.

The source said in a statement leap-space correspondent 'island' - : It has been neutralized oil installations in the attack on Haifa. which resulted in the deaths of nine 'Israelis' and wounding 12 others, but he warned that he would not exclude anything during the time ahead.

He said television 'Al-Manar', which attacked the premises' Israeli ' More than 20 rockets of the type 'Raad 2' and 'Raad 3' fell on the port of Haifa.
The 'Hezbollah' was launched yesterday for the first time since the outbreak of confrontations, three batches of missiles on the town of Tiberias, at a distance of about 20 kilometres south of the Lebanese-Israeli borders.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Casey]

Nasrallah threatens charging capital missiles or chemical weapons if Israel forged ahead and demands disarmament

Demanded the disarmament of Hezbollah as a condition for Israel to stop fighting and the return of all Palestinian refugees to their towns and villages in Palestine

It threatens charging warheads sending gifts cities occupied Palestine and bacteriological weapons to kill tree and land in the event forged ahead

Israel did not respond to the demands of the resistance, was also processed 10,041 fighters and special units of the Palestinian Palestinians Lebanon

And Jordan to restore the liberated towns and cities in Palestine and control.

As is well known, Iran, which produced chemical and bacteriological weapons is heavily Maastomalth (Halabja) at the Kurdish

Iraqi-Iranian war, noting that it was first brought this chemical and bacteriological Hafez Assad of Syria, where it produced a lot

, noting that the Syrian arsenal possessing missiles with ranges to Gaza and Al-Arish and Beer seven wait anxiously until

Soliciting for Israel to be used, and has provided Hizbullah with sufficient quantity of protective masks for protection of the Lebanese people.

[Petronas]

Second rocket volley strikes Haifa after 9 civilians killed, 36 injured, in direct hits to main railway terminal near Checkpoint earlier Sunday morning
July 16, 2006, 2:36 PM (GMT+02:00)

The first barrage of at least 20 Iranian-produced Grad rockets from Lebanon struck Haifa Bay, Upper Hadar, Krayot, as well as Acre and Nahariya. The second round targeted Kiryat Haim, Kiryat Motzkin, Acre, Carmiel and Bat Galim.

The Israeli military identifies the rockets fired at Haifa as an Iranian Fajr 3, whose maximum range is 40km, although Hizballah claimed they fired Grad rockets. Close to a million residents of affected areas as far east as Tiberias, which was first attacked Saturday, are ordered to stay in shelters and protected spaces and heed sirens. Citizens south of Haifa up to Tel Aviv, covering Israel's central heartland are advised to be vigilent and be ready to take cover. Police are clearing the streets. Nahariya to the north is under Hizballah attack for the fifth day, as are western Galilee moshavim. Israel advises southern Lebanese civilians to exit area.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=2891

9K51 BM-21 Grad (Hail)

The 122mm 40-tube multiple launch rocket system Grad (Hail), with a firing range of up to 20 km, was introduced into operational service with the Russian Army in 1963 [and initially designated in the West as the M1964]. The BM-21 is unquestionably the world’s most widely used MRL. The successful use of the Grad system in local conflicts of various intensity for three decades led many countries to develop similar systems.

The launcher with supporting equipment is referred to as the complex 9K51. This 40-round launcher has four tiers of ten tubes mounted on the chassis of a truck.

The BM-21 can be distinguished from other multiple rocket launchers by the square-cornered, 40-tube launching apparatus (4 banks of 10 tubes), which is often covered by a protective canvas. It is mounted on the Ural-375D 6x6 truck chassis, which has a distinctive fender design and a spare tire on the rear side of the cab. The BM-21 also is the only known Soviet rocket launcher without blast shields on the driver's cab. However, the material used in the cab windows and windscreen is strong enough to withstand the overpressures and other effects associated with the firing of 122-mm rockets.

The BM-21 can be operated and fired from the cab, or it can be fired remotely at a distance of up to 60 meters, using a cable set. The launcher is traversed forward towards the cab for traveling and for firing uses two stabilizing jacks at the rear of the vehicle. A special electric generator powers the launcher. The 9V170 firing device is cab mounted, but the rockets can be fired using a remote-firing device that has a 64-meter-long cable. This MRL can fire all rockets in 6 seconds or fire each singly, and can reload in 5 minutes. It can fire the 40 rockets or any part thereof at a fixed 0.5-second interval. Single rockets can be fired manually at any desired interval. The five-man crew can reload the launcher in 8 minutes.

The BM-21 fires a "9-ft rocket" with a range of 20,380 meters. Each launch tube is grooved to impart a slow rotary motion to the rocket. However, the rocket is primarily fin-stabilized. This combination of spin- and fin-stabilization ensures closely grouped fire at ranges of up to 16 kilometers. The BM-21 and other 122mm rocket launchers can fire all 122mm rockets designed to fit in Soviet-derived 122mm launchers (including those that can achieve ranges of 30,000 to 36,000 meters). The 122-mm fin-stabilized rockets can deliver Frag-HE, chemical, or incendiary warheads to a range of over 20 kilometers, or the newer HE and cargo rockets out to 30 kilometers. On explosion, the warhead produces a great fragmentation effect and shock wave.

Because of its high volume of fire and large area coverage, the BM-21 is well suited for use against troops in the open, for use in artillery preparations, and for delivery of chemical concentrations. One volley from a BM-21 battalion is 720 rounds. Because these weapons have a large circular area probable (CEP), they are not suited for attacks against point targets.

The Ural-375D vehicle has a maximum road speed of 75 km/hr, a cruising range of 750 km, and an exceptional cross-country capability.

Rockets must always be fired with the vehicle parked obliquely to the target to avoid blast damage to the unprotected cab.

The BM-21 entered service in 1964 as a replacement for the 140-mm (16- and 17-round) BM-14 rocket launchers, and is now the most widely used truck-mounted rocket launcher in the Warsaw Pact forces. Heavier rocket launchers, including the 200-mm (4-round) BMD-20, the 240-mm (12-round) BM-24, and the 250-mm (6-round) BMD-25, are seldom seen in front-line units. Although the BM-21 rockets are smaller in caliber than previous models, the warhead is equal to that of the 140-mm rocket, and the range exceeds that of the older 140-mm and 240-mm models. Due to the smaller caliber of its rockets, the BM-21 also can fire a greater quantity of rockets than the earlier models, making it especially useful for area fire and delivering massive surprise fires. The BM-21 is found in the rocket launcher battalion organic to each motorized rifle and tank division. It also has been used at front and army level, where it was replaced by the 220-mm rocket launcher (16-round) BM-27 in some units.

VARIANTS

BM-21V: 12-round launcher (V standing for vozdushnodesantii - Airborne -- NATO designator M1975) system was developed for use by Airborne composite artillery battalions. The BM-21V fires the same rocket as the BM-21 and BM-21-1.
BM-21B: Russian 36-tube MRL on a 6x6 ZIL-131 chassis
Grad-P: Russian 1 round rocket launcher
9A51 Prima: Russian 50-tube MRL on a 6x6 ZIL-131 chassis
BM-11: North Korean 30-tube version
Type 81: Chinese 40- rail-launched version
Sakr-18: Egyptian 40- tube 122mm MRL based on the Soviet BM-21. It has a range of 20 km carrying a 23 kg cluster munition.
RM-70: Czechoslovakian 40-tube version -- The Czechoslovakian Army introduced this new version with the BM-21 launching apparatus mounted on a modified 10-ton TATRA 813 (8x8) truck in 1972. Although the basic launcher is almost identical with that of the Soviet BM-21, the transport vehicle is entirely different. Notable are the armored cab and the provision for carrying an additional 40 rockets.
The reload pack of 40 additional rockets is located between the launcher and the armored cab, allowing the reload time to be reduced to 1.5 to 3.0 minutes. Although this combination is larger and heavier than the Soviet BM-21 on the Ural-3750 truck, it has the same road speed and a similar cruising range (600 km). It also permits greater tactical flexibility due to the additional rocket supply. This variant, known as the M-70, entered service in at least Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/bm-21.htm

Fajr-3 Artillery Rocket

The Fajr-3 is an Iranian-made medium range ballistic missile. Iran announced its first successful test of the missile in April, saying it was the most advanced missile in its arsenal, was invisible to radar and could hold multiple warheads that could attack several targets at the same time. ...

The 5.2 meter long, 240-millimeter Fajr-3 missile has a range of some 25 miles, and the 333-millimeter Fajr-5 missile has a range of about 45 miles. Production of the Fajr-3 missile, with an estimated range of 45 km and a weight of 407 kilograms and carries a 45 kilogram warhead, was estimated to have started in 1991. Fajr-3 has the same caliber, range and warhead weight as three known North Korean systems.

In early 2001 it was reported that Hezbollah had set up a belt of mobile Multiple rocket launchers and truck-mounted missiles along Israel’s northern flank ready to go off the moment Israel launched a large-scale military offensive against Lebanon. The Japanese-made Isuzu truck launchers carry Fajr-3 (Arabic for dawn-3) projectiles, a third generation of Katyusha rockets with a 60-kilometer range manufactured by Iran's air force industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajr-3_rocket

[Casey]

Lebanon confirms al Qaeda active in country

Lebanon's Acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat confirmed in a newspaper interview Saturday the presence of al Qaeda in Lebanon, disclosing that "we have apprehended four groups" belonging to this network.

He also blasted allegations that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the "Liberation Party", which he said was founded long before Osama Bin Laden established his network.

"I have been asked about it (the Liberation Party) in (trips to) Washington and in Egypt and in any country I visit … The Liberation Party has a history that dates back to half a century," Fatfat said in an interview with an-Nahar daily published Saturday.

He said the Sunni Liberation Party "is today politically active … and that comforts me," adding that "should it err, I will request the Cabinet to dissolve it for security, and not political measures."

Fatfat assured that al-Qaeda was present in Lebanon. "Of course (it is present)," he said "in view that four of its groups have been apprehended" in Lebanon.

Fatfat clarified, however, that the four groups were unconnected. "This is a scheme performed by al-Qaeda," he added. "We take pride in Lebanon in being able to arrest these groups before becoming effective," Fatfat noted.

© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Lebanon/204214

[Casey]

"Al-Qaeda Lebanon" Group Says It Will Will Destroy The Government

A group identifying itself as "Al-Qaeda Lebanon" issued a statement Sunday threatening "to destroy the corrupt cabinet that takes orders from the US administration." The typewritten statement by the previously unknown group was sent to the Christian Voice of Lebanon radio station

"We have reached Lebanon and we will work on destroying this government and all the other agents. Let them know that we are after them, with God's will," the statement said.

The statement came with the country in political crisis following the resignation of the five Shiite ministers.

All belong to the pro-Syrian Amal and Shiite Hezbollah groups. The government is headed Fouad Seniora, a member of the anti-Syrian majority in the country.

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_3130-Al-Qaeda-Lebanon-Group-Says-It-Will-Will-Destroy-The-Government.html

[Casey]

Published: 10/01/2007 12:00 AM (UAE)
Al Qaeda in Lebanon says report

Agencies

Occupied Jerusalem: Al Qaeda has sent large numbers of people to Lebanon, Syria and Egpyt, according to a report in an Israeli newspaper.

Israel's military intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin told a meeting of the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that “dozens” of al Qaeda operatives had arrived in Lebanon.

He was quoted by the local paper Yedioth Ahronoth as saying: "Dozens, if not hundreds, of al-Qaida operatives arrived in Lebanon.


“These operatives are trained and have terror knowledge. According to estimates, the organization's number two Ayman Al Zwahiri gave orders to operatives to spread in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt," he added.

He warned that there could be attacks in the near future on United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon as well as Western targets.

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10095852.html

[Casey]

Lebanon army seizes 75 missiles belonging to Islamist group
Sunday, 21 January, 2007 @ 4:30 AM


Beirut- The Lebanese army seized 75 missiles allegedly belonging to an Islamist group in the Rashaya region in the southern part of the country, security officials said Saturday.


The officials said the "Grad" missiles were found in a flour mill in the village of al-Biri late Friday. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media, said the missiles belonged to al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya.

The officials did not provide details on the militant group but said authorities arrested the owner of the flour mill along with his wife, son, cousin and another man.

The security officials said the missiles had been stored by the group for more than 10 years in the Chebaa Farms area close to Lebanon's border with Israel. The group allegedly moved the weapons to al-Biri before U.N. peacekeepers were deployed there over the summer to monitor the cease-fire that ended the 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel

About Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya

Is a militant Egyptian Islamist movement that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and Egyptian governments. The group is dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government and replacing it with an Islamic state.

The blind cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman is the spiritual leader of the movement. He was accused of conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 but was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his espousal of a subsequent conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks, including the United Nations and FBI offices. The Islamic Group has publicly threatened to retaliate against the United States unless Rahman is released from prison. However, the group has recently renounced violence and their leaders and members were released from prison in Egypt.

Controversy over an alliance with Al-Qaeda

Deputy Leader of Al-Qaeda Zawahiri announced in a publicly released video on August 4, 2006 a new alliance with Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. He said "We bring good tidings to the Muslim nation about a big faction of the knights of the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya uniting with Al-Qaeda,".

He said the move aimed to help "rally the Muslim nation's capabilities in a unified rank in the face of the most severe crusader campaign against Islam in its history." Al- Gama'a leader, Mohammad Hakaima, appeared in a portion of the video and confirmed the unity move.

However, the group denied claims that it has joined forces with the international Al-Qaeda network]. Sheikh Abdel Akher Hammad, a former Al- Gama'a leader, told Aljazeera: "If [some] brothers ... have joined, then this is their personal view and I don't think that most Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya members share that same opinion.

Al Qaeda has threatened to attack the UNIFIL forces in south Lebanon.


http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/01/lebanon_army_se_1.php

[Casey]

I seem to have stumbled on to the Hezbollah Lebanon forum.

As posted today (Jan. 21, 2007) it would appear there will be a general strike on Tuesday to measure the support for the Lebanese opposition.

The posts go on to say it is not a mandatory strike but they will be looking to the numbers to see what level of support they can expect and expect a high level of media coverage.

[Casey]

(((((( ساعة الصفر تقررت ويبقى الاعلان عنها ))))))

((((((Zero hour hike remains advertised))))))

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The name of God the Merciful

اللهم صل على محمد وعلى آله الطيبين الطاهرين

O??? On Muhammad, his good divine

مصادر في المعارضة لـ "وكالة اخبار لبنان: قرار التصعيد الكبير اتخذ وساعة الصفر حددت والبداية الأقفال الشامل والاضراب العام

Opposition sources told the "News Agency of Lebanon : Decision major escalation in the zero hour, and initially identified the closure and destruction general strike

كشفت مصادر في المعارضة الوطنية اللبنانية لـ"وكالة أخبار لبنان" ان القرار على مستوى المعارضة بالتحرك الكبير قد اتخذ، ويبقى الاعلان عن ساعة الصفر التي رجح ان تكون الاسبوع المقبل على أبعد تقدير، مشيرة إلى ان الامين العام لحزب الله السيد حسن نصرالله سيتحدث عن هذا الموضوع بالتفصيل خلال اطلالته على شاشة تلفزيون المنار هذا المساء ، بحيث سيقدم عرضاً وشرحاً مفصلاً للتحرك منذ البداية وحتى الان والأفاق المستقبلة.

Sources in the opposition, the Lebanese national of the "Agency news Lebanon" that the decision on the level of opposition to move large had been taken, and keep the announcement of the zero hour, which was likely to be next week at the latest, noting that the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, will be speaking on this topic in detail during Dory on Al Manar Television screen this evening, so Orozco and detailed explanation of the move from the outset and until now, the prospects of receiving.

واوضحت المصادر ان الكوادر الاساسية في الاحزاب المنضوية في صفوف المعارضة قد أبلغت بالاستعداد ابتداءاً من الاثنين المقبل، وان العنوان الاساسي للتحرك او الخطوة الاولى ستكون الاضراب العام او الاقفال الشامل في جميع المناطق، أي أن الاسلوب الجديد في التحرك هو البدء فوراً بالخطوة الكبرى التي يدور في سياقها التحركات الاخرى، لا سيما ما يجري على الارض من أشكال تعبير ضمن الاطر القانونية والتي تصب في خانة التصعيد المرتقب.

The sources pointed out that the core cadres of the parties that fall in the ranks of the opposition had been informed ALERT starting from next Monday, and the main title of the move or the first step will be the general strike or closure destruction in all regions, namely that the new style in action is to immediately launch major step going in the context of other movements, particularly what is happening on the ground forms of expression within legal frameworks, which are in the escalation anticipated.

وأشارت المصادر الى ان كل خطوة على الارض ستعلن في لحظتها وستكون محكومة في سياق تطور الامور، فكل تصعيد معين ضمن التصعيد الكبير له ظروفه وحيثياته التي تفرض سلوك هذا الاتجاه او ذلك. لكن المحسوم هو ان كل الخطوات ستكون كبيرة ومفاجئة بما لم يعتد عليه فريق السلطة.

The sources pointed out that every step of the Earth will announce on the spot and will be governed in the context of the evolution of things, however, given the escalation in the major escalation has its own circumstances and the merits of imposing conduct this direction or that. But unresolved is that all steps will be significant and sudden including not infringe upon the authority.

[Casey]

Lebanon came to a standstill due to opposition strike (Roundup)
Jan 23, 2007, 12:00 GMT

Beirut - Lebanon came to a standstill Tuesday after a general strike organized by the opposition, led by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, blocked main roads and disrupted air traffic at Beirut airport.

Lebanese police and security sources said at least 15 people were wounded by gunfire in various areas of the country between opposition protestors and others loyal to the Western-backed government.

Despite the heavy deployment of Lebanese army soldiers, the opposition protestors managed to close main roads leading to the capital and others linking the capital with the southern and northern sectors of the country.

A source at Beirut international airport said that eight flights were cancelled because roads leading to the area were blocked by the protestors.

According to airport officials, flights are coming in but passengers are unable to leave the airport because the roads are closed.

Thick columns of black smoke covered the capital and other cities, as demonstrators guided by Hezbollah blocked roads by burning tyres and old cars as well as forming a human chain in front of Lebanese troops trying to reopen roads.

Lebanese troops and Internal Security Police in areas like the airport road were sitting back and watching the demonstrators blocking the roads.

A number of clashes erupted in the capital and nearby regions when demonstrator and pro-government followers engaged in fistfights and threw stones at each other.

Lebanese police said 15 people were wounded, among them two Lebanese soldiers.

Tensions were running high in the Christian camp between the followers of Hezbollah ally General Michel Aoun and others loyal to anti-Syrian leader Samir Geagea who heads the Lebanese Forces.

Lebanese television aired pictures of the Christian rival factions standing face to face, with Lebanese troops between them.

In the Christian area of Jounieh, Aoun's followers and rivals were seen having fistfights.

A source who is part of Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement said five people were wounded by gunshots in separate incidents during protest actions in northern Lebanon.

The source said three of the movement's followers were wounded in Byblos. A fourth Aoun follower was run over 'intentionally' by a driver who wanted to reach his job. She escaped with some wounds, the source added.

The source added a fifth member of the pro-Syrian Marada movement led by former minister Suleiman Franjiyeh was wounded in Koura, northern Lebanon.

According to hospital sources in northern Lebanon, two of Aoun's followers were listed in serious condition, while a third man was being treated for slight wounds.

Lebanese security sources said that the man who fired the shots was arrested by the army and is being interrogated to see to which political group he belongs.

The sources said the army had also arrested four of Aoun's followers in the Bekaa valley who were trying to block roads by force.

Witnesses on the main road linking Byblos with the town of Halate in northern Lebanon told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the situation in the area was 'very tense' between Aoun's and Geagea's supporters.

Roads linking Christian east Beirut to the Muslim sector of the capital at the Museum crossing were also closed as a result of burning tyres and empty trash cans being put there by young masked militants.

On Monday, Seniora urged the Lebanese people to ignore the strike call and pledged to keep roads open so people could get to work.

The opposition called the one-day strike to escalate its bid, which started on December 1, to topple the Western-backed government.

Hezbollah wants to replace the Western-backed cabinet with a government in which it would have a power of veto.

The strike comes just two days before an international donors' conference in Paris for Lebanon, which is reeling under a public debt of 41 billion dollars.

The nationwide strike was the first major escalation of the opposition's protest since its supporters started their open-ended sit-in on December 1.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1250384.php/Lebanon_came_to_a_standstill_due_to_opposition_str ike__Roundup_

[Casey]

Liquid Explosives Hunted Across the Atlantic Busted in Lebanon

Nearly six months after feverish search by U.S. and European intelligence agencies for lethal "liquid explosives" Lebanese police confiscated the first batch of such deadly weapons, sources told Naharnet Tuesday.
One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said each of the 31 confiscated explosive devices is made up of two tubes filled with blue liquid, fitted on a board and connected to a timer-detonator.

A police communiqué said a squad of its intelligence branch carried out a "swift operation during which it confiscated 31 explosive sets."

The communiqué said the confiscated sets included "sophisticated electro-chemical timers-detonators that can be timed to explode after as late as 124 days."

The sets were confiscated in an area "in the vicinity" of the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern port city of Sidon, 45 kilometers from Beirut, the communiqué said.

The sets were to be "smuggled and used in terrorist acts," the communiqué added.

The source, however, told Naharnet the sets were busted nearly 12 days ago in the Sikkeh district of Ain el-Hilweh in a "daring, swift and clean raid."

The sets, according to the source, were "assembled and awaiting a squad to smuggle them to another location. Police, apparently, postponed issuing a communiqué on the bust in an effort to tail members of what is believed to be a major network of terrorists operating between various sectors of Lebanon."

He said material used in the sets is of an "eastern European origin." He refused to elaborate.

British, U.S. and European Union intelligence agencies have been searching since August for the lethal liquid explosives after London said it unveiled a scheme to blow up passenger aircraft on flights across the Atlantic.

Stringent security measures have been applied at almost all western airports, banning air passengers from carrying any liquids, even food for infants.

The Lebanese police operation was the first ever reported bust of liquid explosives in the world.

Beirut, 27 Feb 07, 16:21

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/0/BBC254EE8D2D0165C225728F004EB351?OpenDocument

[Casey]

Analysis: Al-Qaida in south Lebanon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By CLAUDE SALHANI
UPI International Editor

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 7 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida has begun to infiltrate fighters in parts of southern Lebanon, replacing Hezbollah militants who were forced out of the area by Israel during last summer's violent clashes, said a well-informed Arab politician who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Still, the source said, this deployment of Islamist militants to south Lebanon is being carried out "with the discreet approval of Iran and Syria." Tehran and Damascus hope this will give them greater bargaining power in negotiating with the West over Iran's nuclear dossier and the ongoing investigation and pending trial into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in which Syrian officials are prime suspects.

He added that the situation in south Lebanon was very "concerning," and was worrying moderate Arab leaders in the region who fear that with al-Qaida combatants now in striking distance of Israel, the situation in the Middle East could take a turn for the worst at any moment.

This new development is also very worrisome to countries that have contributed large number of troops to the upgraded UNIFIL, the United Nation Interim Force in Lebanon, particularly Italy and France.

One major concern is that the UNIFIL troops could become targets of al-Qaida should either Syria or Iran ever wish to pressure France or Italy or any other contributing nation. France, for example, fears its contingent in southern Lebanon could become the target of attacks as a result of Paris' support for the Lebanese government and the international community to have an international tribunal examine the assassination of Hariri.

Syria is widely suspected of having had a hand in the killing of Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005, and some intelligence specialists believe the order to have the former Lebanese prime minister killed came from "very high up."

Hariri's death triggered massive anti-Syrian demonstrations in Lebanon, which, combined with strong political pressure from France and the United States, eventually forced Damascus to withdraw its uniformed troops from Lebanon. Western intelligence analysts, however, believe Syria maintained an important intelligence contingent in Lebanon. Those, along with Hezbollah -- which receives much of its political, military and financial aid from Damascus and Tehran -- makes the Syrian-Iranian alliance a powerful force in Lebanon's political landscape. Now add in al-Qaida and the cocktail becomes all the more potent.

Following last summer's war in Lebanon, Rome and Paris had agreed to provide several thousand additional troops to revitalize UNIFIL and help the Lebanese army as it deployed in the southern part of the country for the first time in more than 24 years, filling the void left by Hezbollah after their forced departure from the area.

Indeed, if proven true -- and other independent sources seem to confirm the report of al-Qaida becoming more present in southern Lebanon -- there are ample reasons for concern.

Al-Qaida becoming operational in southern Lebanon greatly alters the geo-political map of the area once again. Moving into what has long been regarded as Hezbollah territory places the militant Islamist organization for the first time since its inception within striking range of Israeli cities, towns and settlements. Al-Qaida has repeatedly called for the destruction of the State of Israel.

During the 34-day war that pitted the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah and Israel into a devastating conflict, hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in northern Israel were forced to flee south to escape a deluge of rockets fired into northern Israel by the Shiite guerillas.

Furthermore, this re-kindles the precarious situation in southern Lebanon, making the Lebanese-Israeli frontier yet again a potential trigger point for a new Middle East crisis.

Starting in the late 1960s, throughout the 1970s and up until 1982, when the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Palestinian factions were expelled from Lebanon, the presence of armed Palestinian groups in the Lebanese-Israeli border region was the cause of numerous Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon and air raids over the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Within a short while the PLO and other Palestinian armed groups had become the de facto authority, having taken control of large swaths of southern Lebanon and in the process forcing out the Lebanese army, pushing it north of the Litani River. With the Palestinians masters of most of the border area, Israel began referring to the Palestinian-controlled parts of south Lebanon as Fatahland -- and Israeli raids became more frequent.

The departure of Hezbollah from the border area and its replacement by units of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL was to herald a new era of tranquility to south Lebanon. But the arrival of al-Qaida will once again invite Israeli military intervention. If indeed Damascus and Tehran instigated al-Qaida's introduction to south Lebanon, they may have created a monster that will one day turn on them.

The Sunni branch of Islam, to which al-Qaida belongs, has never been too fond of the Alawites who rule Damascus or the Shiite clergy in Iran.

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070307-064136-5437r

[Casey]

Leader of Lebanon's al-Qaeda cell pledges to strike America again

SOUAD MEKHENNET AND MICHAEL MOSS IN TRIPOLI, LEBANON

DEEP in a violent and lawless slum just north of the Lebanese coastal city of Tripoli, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs.

In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. "Allah-u akbar," the men shouted in praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall.

The men belong to a new militant Islamic organisation called Fatah al Islam. Its leader, fugitive Palestinian Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a refugee camp where he trains fighters and spreads the ideology of al-Qaeda.

He has solid terrorist credentials. A former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed last summer, Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia along with al-Zarqawi over the 2002 assassination of a US diplomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley.

Just four months after arriving in Lebanon from Syria, Abssi has a militia that intelligence officials estimate at 150 men and an arsenal of explosives, rockets and even an anti-aircraft gun.

During a recent interview, Abssi displayed his makeshift training facility and his strident message that America needed to be punished for its presence in the Islamic world.

"The only way to achieve our rights is by force," he said. "This is the way America deals with us. So when the Americans feel that their lives and their economy are threatened they will know that they should leave."

Abssi's organisation is the image of what intelligence officials have warned is the re-emergence of al-Qaeda. Shattered after 2001, the organisation founded by Osama bin Laden is now reforming as an alliance of small groups around the world that share a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam but have developed their own independent terror capabilities, these officials have said. If Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has acknowledged directing the September 11 attacks and a string of other terror plots, represents the previous generation of al-Qaeda leaders, Abssi and others like him represent the new generation.

US and Middle Eastern intelligence officials say Abssi is viewed as a dangerous militant who can assemble small teams of operatives with acute military skill. "Guys like Abssi have the capability on the ground that al-Qaeda has lost and is looking to tap into," a US intelligence source said.
Abssi has shown himself to be a canny operator. Despite being on terrorism watch lists around the world, he has set himself up in a Palestinian refugee camp where, because of Lebanese politics, he is largely shielded from the government. The camp also gives him ready access to a pool of recruits, young Palestinians whose militant vision has evolved from the struggle against Israel to a larger Islamic cause.

Intelligence officials in Beirut says he has also exploited another source of manpower - it estimates that he has 50 militants from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries fresh from fighting with the insurgency in Iraq.

Officials say they fear he is seeking to establish himself as a terror leader on the scale of al-Zarqawi. "He is trying to fill a void and in a high-profile manner that will attract the attention of supporters," the US intelligence source said.

The arc of Abssi's life shows the allure of al-Qaeda for Arab militants. Born in Palestine, from where he and his family were evicted by the Israelis, Abssi, 51, said he stopped studying medicine to fly planes for Yasser Arafat. He then staged attacks on Israel from his own base in Syria. After he was imprisoned in Syria for three years on terrorism charges, he said he broadened his targets to include Americans in Jordan.

An interview with Abssi was arranged through a series of intermediaries, who helped set up meetings in his headquarters at the Nahr al Bared refugee camp. Abssi, a soft-spoken man with salt-and-pepper hair, was interviewed in a bare room inside a small cinderblock building on the edge of a field. About 80 men were in the compound, performing various tasks, including one who manned an anti-aircraft gun. As Abssi spoke, two aides took notes while a third fiddled with a sub-machine gun. A bazooka leaned against the wall behind him.

In a 90-minute interview, his first with Western reporters, Abssi said he shared al-Qaeda's fundamentalist interpretation and endorsed the creation of a global Islamic nation. He said killing US soldiers in Iraq was no longer enough to convince the American public that its government should abandon what many Muslims view as a war against Islam.
"We have every legitimate right to do such acts, for isn't it America that comes to our region and kills innocents and children?" Abssi said. "It is our right to hit them in their homes as they hit us in our homes.

"We are not afraid of being named terrorists," he added. "But I want to ask: is someone who detonates one kilogram a terrorist while someone who detonates tons in Arab and Islamic cities not a terrorist?"

When asked, Abssi refused to say what his targets might be.

This week, Lebanese law enforcement officials said they arrested four men from Fatah al Islam in Beirut and other Lebanese cities, and were charging them with last month's bombing of two commuter buses carrying Lebanese Christians. Abssi denies any involvement and says he has no plans to strike within Lebanon.

Inside the Palestinian camp, Abssi seems to be building his operation with little interference. Major General Achraf Rifi, general director of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, said the government does not have authority to enter a Palestinian camp - even though Abssi is now wanted in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on terrorism charges.

To enter the camps, Rifi said, "we would need an agreement from other Arab countries". He said that instead the government was tightening its cordon around the camp to make it harder for Abssi or his men to slip in and out.

Rifi said officials were trying to learn as much as possible about Abssi's operation from sources and surveillance, but it was clear that their information was limited.

In his newspaper interview, Abssi said he had been largely warmly received in the Palestinian camp, and that he was optimistic about his cause.

"One of the reasons for choosing this camp is our belief the people here are close to God as they feel the same suffering as our brothers in Palestine," he said.

"Today's youth, when they see what is happening in Palestine and Iraq, it enthuses them to join the way of the right and jihad. They have now started to adopt the right path."


http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=462132007

[Ono]

UN Considers Creating Hariri Tribunal After Diplomatic Mission Fails (http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/05/02/un-considers-creating-hariri-tribunal-after-diplomatic-mission-fails/)


May 2, 2007 at 11:00 pm Britain, France and the United States are preparing to ask the United Nations to create an international court to try suspects in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. VOA’s Peter Heinlein at the U.N. reports Security Council action is seen as a last resort, after a special envoy concluded that Lebanese efforts to establish the court are hopelessly deadlocked.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent his top legal adviser Nicholas Michel to Lebanon last month to try to break the impasse preventing creation of a Hariri assassination tribunal. Michel told the Security Council Wednesday his mission had failed, and it was up to the Council to decide what to do next.

“I had to say that I had no progress to report on the efforts that I made, and it’s definitely for them to assess situation on that basis and to decide what course of action they want to take,” Michel said.

Hariri and 22 others died in a suicide truck bomb explosion in Beirut more than two years ago. An initial U.N. inquiry implicated senior Syrian intelligence officials in the murder. Damascus strongly denied involvement, and condemned the killings.

But the creation of a tribunal is a politically-charged issue. Pro-Syrian factions are demanding effective control of Lebanon’s legislature before allowing a parliamentary vote on the tribunal.

After listening to Michel’s briefing, the British, French and American representatives suggested it may be time for the Security Council to consider creating the court.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad noted that all Lebanese factions had agreed to the tribunal in principle. He suggested the Security Council might bypass Lebanon’s political disputes by invoking the legally-binding authority of Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter. “We haven’t discussed any options at this point, but of course the Security Council could assist the Lebanese by establishing the tribunal that the Lebanese have agreed to broadly, under Chapter Seven by the Security Council,” he said.
British Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry told reporters, “It is time to bite the bullet and take action to put a tribunal in place.” French envoy Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said “the time for the Security Council to exercise its responsibilities is approaching”.

But Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin signalled Moscow’s skepticism about pre-emptive Security Council action to create the court. Churkin suggested Lebanon’s rival factions might still find a way to break their deadlock. “The people in Lebanon cannot be looking to the Security Council to solve all their problems. And I do hope that there is still an opportunity to agree on this special tribunal,” he said.


Western diplomats say Russia is not alone in expressing reservations about pre-emptive Council action to create a Hariri tribunal. They say further talks on the matter are likely this month, when the United States holds the Security Council presidency.


http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/05/02/un-considers-creating-hariri-tribunal-after-diplomatic-mission-fails/

[Casey]

Lebanon Clashes Leave 16 Dead


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/caseybritton/maqda.jpg
The elite of Al-Qaeda in Lebanon - Munir Maqda with
cellular phone and Ahmad as-Saavi, with Kalashnikov rifle

TRIPOLI, Lebanon, May 20--At least 16 people were killed in fierce gunbattles in northern Lebanon on Sunday pitting soldiers against militants extremists accused of links to Al-Qaeda.

An army spokesman said 11 Lebanese soldiers have been killed in heavy fighting on Sunday with militants from the Fatah al-Islam group.

Another 19 soldiers have been wounded, several of them seriously, the spokesman said.

The fighting between army troops surrounding the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared and fighters from the Fatah al-Islam group began after a gunbattle raged in a neighborhood in Tripoli.

Witnesses said Fatah al-Islam gunmen seized Lebanese army positions at the entrance to the camp. The gunmen also opened fire on roads leading to the city and ambushed a military unit.

The army brought reinforcements and was firing on Fatah al-Islam positions, security officials said.

The city, Lebanon's second largest, shuttered and roads were deserted as the crackle of gunfire could still be heard in the morning, more than five hours after the clashes began.

The clashes in the camp began early morning shortly after police raided a militant-occupied apartment on Mitein Street, a major thoroughfare in Tripoli.

The police were looking for suspects in a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli, in which gunmen made off with $125,000 in cash.

The armed militants resisted arrest and a gunbattle ensued before spreading to surrounding streets.

In April, a Lebanese soldier was killed in a shootout with Fatah al-Islam gunmen at the edge of Nahr al-Bared, a camp of 30,000 refugees.

Lebanon blamed Fatah al-Islam for a bus bombing in February in the Christian heartland northeast of Beirut that killed three people.

The group is an offshoot of the Fatah Uprising which broke from the mainstream Fatah faction in the early 1980s.

By longstanding convention, the Lebanese police and army do not enter Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, leaving security there to Palestinian groups.

Fatah al-Islam is ideologically close to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.

http://www.alalam.ir/english/en-NewsPage.asp?newsid=041030120070520094349

[Casey]

Militant group warns will open volcano in Lebanon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

20 May 2007 11:52:38 GMT
Source: Reuters

More BEIRUT, May 20 (Reuters) - A militant group battling Lebanese security forces in northern Lebanon on Sunday warned it would "open the gates of fire" in Lebanon and told the army not to take "provocative actions".

The authenticity of the statement from Fatah al-Islam, which has been fighting Lebanese security forces in and around the northern city of Tripoli, could not immediately be verified. Its language was similar to previous statements from the group.

"We warn the Lebanese army of the consequences of continuing the provocative acts against our mujahideen who will open the gates of fire ... against (the army) and against the whole of Lebanon," the statement, faxed to Reuters, said.

Fatah al-Islam said the army had carried out an unjustified attack on its fighters, three of whom had been killed. Security sources have said four of the militants have been killed.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20308841.htm

[Atlas]

Lebanese Troops Battle Militants

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer

May 20, 2007, 7:37 AM EDT

TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- Lebanese forces engaged in heavy gunbattles with al-Qaida-styled Islamic militants in Tripoli and a nearby Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, officials said, in the worst violence to hit the northern city in two decades.

At least seven Lebanese soldiers were killed outside the refugee camp, the military said.

TV reports indicated at least three militants died in the fighting, which involved tank and grenade fire.

Residents in the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp said at least 12 civilians were killed or wounded, but that figure could not be confirmed by Lebanese authorities, who have no presence there.

The violence adds one more destabilizing factor to conflict-ridden Lebanon, in the midst of its worst political crisis between the Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition since the end of the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war. It underlines the difficulties facing authorities in dealing with pockets of insecurity across the country that are havens for militants.

The clash between army troops surrounding the Palestinian refugee camp and fighters from the Fatah Islam militant group began after a gunbattle raged in a neighborhood of close by Tripoli, witnesses said.

The militant group is an offshoot of the pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising, which broke from the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement in the early 1980s and has headquarters in Syria.

As many other small factions in Lebanon, Fatah Islam's allegiance is sometimes questionable in this deeply polarized country.

Some Lebanese security officials consider that Fatah Islam is now a radical Sunni Muslim group with ties to al-Qaida, or at least al-Qaida style militancy and doctrine. But some anti-Syrian government officials say they are a front for Syrian military intelligence aimed at destabilizing Lebanon.

Syria has been fighting its own Sunni militancy, and has frequently battled with radicals striking in Damascus neighborhoods.

On Sunday, Syria temporarily closed two border crossings with northern Lebanon on Sunday because of security concerns over the clashes, Syria's Interior Ministry said.

The closing of all border outlets at al-Arydha and al-Daboussyah in northern Syria were meant "to preserve the security of Syrian and Lebanese inhabitants," the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by Syria's official news agency, Sana.

Major Palestinian factions have dissociated themselves from Fatah Islam.

The clashes in the camp began shortly after police raided a militant-occupied apartment on a major thoroughfare in Tripoli. Authorities said police were looking for suspects in a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli, in which gunmen made off with $125,000 in cash.

The armed militants resisted arrest and a gunbattle ensued. It spread to surrounding streets and continued through the afternoon.

Witnesses said the militants then seized Lebanese army positions at the entrance to the refugee camp, capturing two armored carriers. The gunmen also opened fire on roads leading to the city and ambushed a military unit, killing two soldiers, security officials said.

Smoke billowed from the camp as a steady barrage of artillery and heavy machine gun fire from army positions pounded militant positions inside the refugee camp.

By midmorning, the army had brought reinforcements and was firing on Fatah Islam positions.

The dozen Palestinian refugee camps scattered in Lebanon are off limits to authorities, and some are controlled by armed guerrillas. Lebanese troops usually cordon the camps with checkpoints. Their presence around Nahr el-Bared increased in recent months after the tiny Fatah Islam militant group stepped up its actions.

The Lebanese army command said earlier Sunday that military units were fighting back, firing from tanks to retake position lost to the militants.

But a Fatah Islam spokesman said the group only fought to defend itself.

"We acted in self-defense after brothers of ours in Tripoli were subjected to arrests," Abu Salim, identified as a spokesman for the group, said by phone from inside Nahr el-Bared. He claimed the Sunnis were under attacks and "we rose to defend our people."

Troops in Tripoli's Zahriyeh neighborhood could be seen besieging a building where militants had taken refuge. The troops at the scene occasionally exchanged fire with the gunmen and said nine were holed up in the building. They said they were waiting for special commandos to arrive to storm the building.

Scores of soldiers armed with automatic rifles and rocket launchers had taken positions on city streets. Dozens of onlookers gathered behind army lines to watch the siege, and the army was bringing reinforcements from other regions.

The violence in Tripoli prompted Saad Hariri, leader of the parliamentary majority and head of the largest Sunni political faction, to urge supporters to cooperate with authorities in the crackdown against the militants.

The sudden explosion of violence was linked by the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority to efforts to create an international tribunal to try killers of former Premier Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in a 2005 suicide truck bombing in Beirut. Syria opposes the tribunal.

The U.N. Security Council is considering a draft resolution to impose the court after Lebanon's government and the pro-Syrian opposition failed to agree on approving it in Beirut.

The anti-Syrian majority coalition says Syria was using its allies in Lebanon to undermine approval of the court.

A U.N. investigation has linked senior Syrian security officials and allies in the Lebanese security services to the murder while Syria controlled Lebanon. Damascus, which was forced to withdraw its army two months after Hariri's assassination, has denied the accusations.

Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, is known to have Islamic fundamentalists.

In April, a Lebanese soldier was killed in a shootout with Fatah Islam gunmen at the edge of Nahr el-Bared, a camp of 30,000 Palestinian refugees.

Lebanon's anti-Syrian government also blamed Fatah Islam for a bus bombing in February in the Christian heartland northeast of Beirut that killed three people. The group has denied involvement in the bus bombing.
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-lebanon-violence,0,1878153,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Vancouver]

It's a big fight at Nahr el-Bared.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6673639.stm

[Casey]

Urgent news : News of the new Ein el-Hilweh camp

Name of God the Merciful

One was just wandering around the entrances Mujahideen Ein el-Hilweh camp.
There was tightened and alert strong and the situation there is very serious.
I advise the Mujahideen brothers who are outside the camp not to approach the entrances to the camp once during this period.

And do not get closer to the entrances subsidiary Batjah camp because it is more than tightening Main roads.

Vladhir caution

There Idolater army tanks stationed at the entrances to the Main Ein Hilweh Palestinian camp.

On the subject of the siege of the Fatah movement to the sites of Jund al-Sham is talk lied and has no credibility because they controlled the Ein el-Hilweh camp brothers in Al Ansar Islamic and secular not open

Vladhir caution

Special
Tame Palestinian

[Casey]

Fatah al-Islam leader wanted in Jordan

Published: May 21, 2007 at 2:55 PM E-mail Story | Print Preview | License

AMMAN, Jordan, May 21 (UPI) -- The Jordanian intelligence service boasts being a regional and international vanguard in cracking down on Islamic extremist militancy led by al-Qaida.

A senior security official said that Shaker Yousef al-Absi, the leader of Fatah al-Islam whose militants were involved in armed clashes with the Lebanese army in northern Lebanon for a second straight day Monday, is wanted by the Jordanian authorities.

The official told United Press International on condition of anonymity that the State Security Court had in July 2004 sentenced Absi to death, in absentia. He was convicted of terrorism and the assassination of a U.S. Agency for International Development employee, Laurence Foley, who was shot and killed in front of his residence in Amman in 2002.

Last year, two people -- a Libyan and a Jordanian -- were put to death by hanging for killing Foley, in which al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was accused of masterminding the attack. Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike in Iraq last year.

The official said Absi does not have a Jordanian citizenship, but carries a Palestinian travel document and was living in Syria at the time of his trial and sentencing in the Jordanian court.

The Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam, said to be linked to al-Qaida, have been fighting in and around Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern port city of Tripoli since Sunday morning, in which dozens from both sides have been killed and refugees are said to be caught in the cross fire with no medical facilities and access.

Jordan's intelligence services were the first to capture al-Qaida elements in 1999 and in absentia sentenced its leader Osama bin Laden to death in 2000 on terrorism charges before his name became notorious after Sept. 11, 2001.
http://www.upi.com/International_Intelligence/Briefing/2007/05/21/fatah_alislam_leader_wanted_in_jordan/2592/

[Vancouver]

Urgent news : News of the new Ein el-Hilweh campThere was tightened and alert strong and the situation there is very serious.No surprise. The Lebanese army is not allowed into these camps under a 1969 pan-Arab deal, but the Pallies can't come and go from them either, and the Ein Hilweh camp is essentially blockaded at all times by the Lebanese army. It'll be really tense at the perimeter now.
In the August 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war, the Israelis bypassed Ein Hilweh and its Lebanese minders, as I understand it. When I heard that fighting had broken out between the Lebanese and some "al-Qaida-link militants", I expected it would be at Ein Hilweh. It turned out to be the smaller Nahr el-Bared camp, but Ein Hilweh is full of crazy gangs and many weapons and it could blow.
When Afghanistan was invaded in late 2001, it is said that about 150 "Afghan Arabs" fled to Ein Hilweh via Syria.

[Casey]

New details emerge on Fatah Islam group
Staff and agencies
22 May, 2007




By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI and ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writers Mon May 21, 6:44 PM ET

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - The fugitive leader of the shadowy militant organization Fatah Islam openly embraces Osama bin Laden and has recruited Arab fighters to carry out attacks around the region.

So far, he has not gained the reach or strength of militants like former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Western intelligence and local officials.

Lebanese security officials see another cause behind the rise of Fatah Islam. They accuse Syria of backing it to stir up trouble in Lebanon, which Damascus long controlled until forced to leave in 2005. Syria denies the claim, saying it considers the group a dangerous terrorist organization.

Lebanese officials have said they believe he has about 100 fighters, including militants from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other Arab countries. One of his followers, killed in fighting Sunday, was suspected in a foiled plot to bomb trains in Germany last year, Lebanese officials said.

"There is no organizational relationship with al-Qaida, but we are in agreement to fight the infidels. This is the ambition and doctrine of every Muslim — to fight the enemies," he told Al-Jazeera television earlier this year.

But unlike traditional Palestinian militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, al-Absi has for years been interwoven with the al-Qaida-linked underground, reportedly visiting Iraq and Afghanistan and associating with the late al-Zarqawi, one of al-Qaida‘s most brutal leaders. Al-Absi is wanted in three Mideast countries — Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Details from the Jordanian indictment paint a picture of al-Absi‘s links.

Over the next few years, the three began preparing the attacks, with al-Zarqawi mapping out plans and providing financing to buy weapons, the indictment said. Al-Absi sent money to bin Suweid and arranged weapons and explosives training in Syria for the other suspects, it said.

Al-Absi dropped from view after being let go by Syria in 2005 then resurfaced in Lebanon last fall, the Jordanian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the press.

Syria‘s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja‘afari, said Monday that Fatah Islam leaders were jailed in Syria for several years. He said that after they were released, Syria discovered they were still involved in terror activities and tried to re-arrest them, but they escaped.

A U.S. counterterrorism official called al-Absi a double threat from his past in Syria and his al-Qaida connections.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said al-Absi had not yet shown an ability to mount major terror operations, but added that it would be dangerous to wait for the group to prove itself. "That is too late," the official said.

http://www.onelocalnews.com:80/duntonsprings/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=112814

[Casey]

Very urgent : A statement from the militants in Ain Al-Helwa Refugee Camp

http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58702

[Vancouver]

Very urgent : A statement from the militants in Ain Al-Helwa Refugee Camp
This story mentions that internet statement from Ein Hilweh:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/23/lebanon.violence.ap/index.html
There's some tire-burning and other typically Palestinian behavior in Ein Hilweh at the moment. Children everywhere, as in any Palestinian place.

[Casey]

See Jund al-Sham

http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2286

[Casey]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/caseybritton/fatah_islam_leader.jpg

زعيم فتح الإسلام يظهر لأول مرة منذ بدء مواجهات البارد

Fatah leader Islam appeared for the first time since the start of confrontations cold

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زعيم فتح الإسلام يظهر لأول مرة منذ بدء مواجهات البارد

Fatah leader Islam appeared for the first time since the start of confrontations cold

العبسي قال إن واشنطن ستتخلى عمن يخدمون مشروعها بلبنان بمجرد انتهاء الحاجة إليهم (الجزيرة)

Al-Absi said that Washington would abandon those who are serving in Lebanon once the project need them (the island)


ظهر زعيم فتح الإسلام شاكر العبسي في تسجيل حصلت عليه الجزيرة, لأول مرة من دون لثام وقال إن أهل السنة في لبنان ليسوا إلا رأس حربة في قتال "اليهود والأميركيين ومن والاهم".

Noon opening of Islam leader Shaker Al-Absi recording obtained by the island, for the first time without the veil and said that the Sunnis in Lebanon are not only the spearhead in the fight "Jews and the Americans, and most importantly."

ويأتي هذا في اليوم الثامن من مواجهات بين فتح الإسلام وبين الجيش اللبناني قتل فيها ما بين 70 و80 شخصا, لكنها عرفت هدنة صمدت منذ الثلاثاء الماضي, رغم الاشتباكات المتقطعة.

This comes on the eighth day of clashes between Fatah Islam and the Lebanese Army killed between 70 and 80 people, but they knew truce survived since last Tuesday, despite sporadic clashes.

و قال العبسي إن الجريمة الحقيقة في مواجهة نهر البارد هي قتل 17 ممن أسماهم أسود التوحيد قبل فترة وجيزة في مدينة طرابلس, في إشارة إلى عناصر تنظيمه, ساخرا ممن وصفهم بأنهم أصحاب المشروع الأميركي في لبنان الذين ستتخلى عنهم واشنطن بمجرد انتهاء الحاجة إليهم، على حد تعبيره.

Al-Absi, said that the crime truth in the face of Nahr el-Bared is who killed 17 black Tawhid what he called a short while ago in the city of Tripoli, in a reference to the elements of organization, mocking those who qualify as holders American project in Lebanon, who will relinquish their Washington once the need arises, according to the source.


Video: http://www.fileflyer.com/view/XH0hOBQ

[Casey]

Posted an hour ago.

Very Urgent not likely delay !!!!!!

خبر عاجل

Urgent news
وصلت اخبار مؤكدة من داخل الجيش اللبناني ان العشرات من ضباط وجنود امريكان متواجدون حالياً على تخوم مخيم نهر البارد وهم من سيدير القتال نرجوا ان تصل هذه الأخبار الى الإخوة في فتح الإسلام

Confirming the news arrived from within the Lebanese Army to dozens of officers and American soldiers currently exist on the edge of Nahr el-Bared camp and they will be fighting from a great hit this news to the brothers opened Islam


يا غارة الله يا غارة اللهOh God raid Oh God raid
المدد المدد يا اللهDuration periods God
الغوث الغوث يا اللهRelief relief God
اللهمّ ثبّت المجاهدين يا اللهGod proved Mujahideen God
اللهمّ أيّد المجاهدين يا اللهGod supported mujahideen God
اللهمّ سدّد رأي ورمي المجاهدينGod paid opinion, threw Mujahideen
اللهمّ لا تكلهم على أنفسهم طرفة عين يا اللهGod does not Teklehm themselves wink God
اللهمّ أهزِم وشتّت وبدّد جمع المشركين يا الله يا هازم الأحزاب وحدكGod Outmaneuver and dispersed and diffused collection idolaters Oh God 3 Goran parties Lonely
اللهمّ أشغل المشركين ببعض واغشي على أبصارهم وأرهبهم وأرعبهمBless run idolaters and some Aghi the eyes and Arabham and horrified
يا الله يا الله يا الله يا أحد ويا صمد ويا رافع السمآء بلا عمدOh God, God, God you one Loya stood Loya Rafie sky without mayors
المدد المدد يا اللهDuration periods God
يا غارة الله يا غارة الله يا غارة اللهOh God raid raid Oh God Oh God raid

[Casey]

Al-Qaeda in Al-Sham Countries - a written permit for the military official

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The military official in the Al-Qaeda network is Al-Sham Countries ( the statement is written )

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In the Name of Allah, the Benificent, the Merciful

Thanks god Nasser the oppressed and conqueror the tyrants saying in a well-knit its lowering : ( but the believers are brothers )

And the prayer and the greeting on the envoy are a mercy for the worlds that guided us with his saying : ( the Muslims their blood become equal and he seeks by their responsibility that brought near them and they are a hand on who their except ) and on its family and its auspicious inexperienced friends ..

Then as for till now ..

, the observer is to what our family in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon is exposed to and too long ago so that his liver splits a pain, a sadness and a regret on a condition this the patient and steadfast people, then since the first days they were deported to camps that lack the simplest means of life and they were surrounded the dusty Balsouter and the barbed wire in a big prison and as if they are wild animals, and prevented the crossing his outside, except through the controls of humiliation and insult to this fighting people .

And they exercised against them all what their rotten minds produced, and from their more important the campaign of the unprecedented neglect, then after was the Palestinians they higher a learning and the less one an illiteracy between the peoples Arab all, became at the tail of the list to many reasons their more important :
First : He prevented them from the simplest jobs by all their kinds and their forms .
Second : The arbitrary measures opposite any kind are of the trade kinds their owner a Palestinian .
Which made the interest in the learning and the education decrease very, then no jobs and no desired trade, and is not in front of them except the mean professions that the crusaders disdain them, as slaves at the Christian capitals owners, as the passage and other .
And from the world wonders that Lebanon Palestinian forbidden from the possession and to a grave if they bury by them after death and due to the Sunni and jihad nature to this people, Lebanon Palestinians became all sects knot in this country and because their presence in their view, violates the demographic composition to this country, and makes the scale they lean in favour of Lebanon year .
Therefore, launched against them a fierce war, then it started " a hope " the Shiite, and it did not shorten the cross, then they delved into the innocents blood, benefitting from the double apparent Sunni against the superiority of a crusade Shiite with the material and military strength, then today a new crusade march returned, under the pretext of the Mstna of " the fight of terrorism " and mean " the Fatah Movement Islam " then the beginning was, from the city of scientists and militants, " Tripoli is Al-Sham " where Nahr Al-Bared camp, and the fire crusade statements elaborated on the television screens and without the shyness from the betraying Jews agent of the Lebanese Forces leader, from the envious crusade magus ally, the greed to Lebanon king " Michel Aoun ", all incite to an extermination " the camp of the cold eye " and for them that has taken place, then it destroyed hundreds of houses on its owners under an unprecedented savage bombardment and by all the weapons kinds that did not use at all and no once against the Jews .

And on it, we from the support duty direct a clear message to the Christian head in Lebanon, the sly Maronite Sfir is saying for it : ( the holding about our family of your dogs, and he extinguished your cannons fires or then the one who warns is excused, then after today to my cross in Lebanon a safety will not remain, and as you hit that you will hit, then our children and our women they are not the less prohibitory from your children and your women, and if you did not finish then will remove your hearts by the car bombs, and we besiege your places by the charges, and target all your trade kinds, starting from the tourism, and my completion by except her from the means of the rotten livelihood you declared them a new Crusade, then O a welcome to the fight, and they do not protect you the support of Arabs dressed to you or lowering our previous party about you, we warn you and to for the last time, and is not her dimension of only the blood meters .)
And that we want are to order the Christian Lebanese army commander the withdrawal of his supporters around the Palestinian camps in general, and Nahr Al-Bared camp especially and the abstinence from his bombardment, lifting all controls and the put barriers to his term .
They accustomed to your sanity because you are the cross assembly in the middle of a Sunni that will drown you if you remained on Mmshakm this and did not accept our advice .. And as for our family in the camps in general and Nahr Al-Bared especially then we say for them : " And Allah we will not let down you and you will see from the Sunnis in general and in Lebanon and Tripoli especially what approves for it your eyes, and Allah is the greatest and the honour to Islam "

The military official to the Al-Qaeda network in Al-Sham Countries ....


القاعدة في بلاد الشام - تصريح مكتوب للمسؤول العسكري

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المسؤول العسكري في تنظيم القاعدة بلاد الشام (التصريح مكتوب)

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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد لله ناصر المستضعفين وقاهر الطواغيت القائل في محكم تنزيله: (إنما المؤمنون إخوة)

والصلاة والسلام على المبعوث رحمة للعالمين الذي أرشدنا بقوله: (المسلمون تتكافأ دماؤهم ويسعى بذمتهم أدناهم وهم يد على من سواهم) وعلى آله وصحبه الغر الميامين..

ثم أما بعد..

فإن المتابع لما يتعرض له أهلنا في المخيمات الفلسطينية في لبنان ومنذ أمد بعيد ليتفطر كبده ألماً وحزناً وحسرة على حال هذا الشعب الصابر والصامد، فمنذ الأيام الأولى هجروا إلى مخيمات تفتقر إلى أبسط سبل الحياة وأحيطوا بالسوتر الترابية والأسلاك الشائكة في سجن كبير وكأنهم وحوش مفترسة، ومنعوا من العبور خارجه، إلا عبر سيطرات الإذلال والإهانة لهذا الشعب المجاهد.

ومارسوا ضدهم كل ما أنتجته عقولهم العفنة، ومن أهمها حملة التجاهل المنقطعة النظير، فبعد أن كان الفلسطينيون هم الأعلى تعلماً والأقل أمية بين الشعوب العربية قاطبة، صاروا في ذيل القائمة لأسباب كثيرة أهمها:
أولاً: منعهم من أبسط الوظائف بكافة أنواعها وأشكالها.
ثانياً: الإجراءات التعسفية ضد أي نوع من أنواع التجارة صاحبها فلسطيني.
مما جعل الإقبال على التعلم والتعليم ينخفض جداً، فلا وظائف ولا تجارة مرجوة، وليس أمامهم إلا المهن الوضيعة التي يأنف الصليبيون منها، كعبيد عند أصحاب رؤوس الأموال النصارى، كالمر وغيره.
ومن عجائب الدنيا أن فلسطيني لبنان ممنوعين من التملك ولو لمقبرة يدفنون بها بعد موتهم، ونظراً للطبيعة السنية والجهادية لهذا الشعب، صار فلسطينيو لبنان عقدة كل الطوائف في هذا البلد، ولأن وجودهم في نظرهم، يخل بالتركيبة الديموغرافية لهذا البلد، ويجعل الكفة تميل لصالح سنة لبنان.
لذا، شنت عليهم حرب شعواء، فبدأت "أمل" الشيعية، ولم يقصر الصليب، فأوغلوا في دماء الأبرياء، مستفيدين من الضعف السني الظاهر مقابل تفوق شيعي صليبي بالقوة المادية والعسكرية، ثم عاد اليوم زحف صليبي جديد، تحت ذريعة مصطنة "محاربة الإرهاب" ويعنون "حركة فتح الإسلام" فكانت البداية، من مدينة العلماء والمجاهدين، "طرابلس الشام" حيث مخيم نهر البارد، واسترسلت التصريحات الصليبية النارية على شاشات التلفاز، وبلا استحياء من عميل اليهود الخائن قائد القوات اللبنانية، من حليف المجوس الصليبي الحاقد، الطمع إلى ملك لبنان "ميشيل عون"، كلهم يحرض على إبادة "مخيم عين البارد" وقد تم لهم ذلك، فدمرت مئات البيوت على أصحابها تحت قصف وحشي منقطع النظير، وبكافة أنواع الأسلحة التي لم تستخدم قط ولا مرة واحدة ضد اليهود.

وعليه، فإننا من واجب النصرة نوجه رسالة واضحة إلى رأس النصرانية في لبنان، الماروني الماكر صفير قائلين له: (كف عن أهلنا كلابك، وأخمد نيران مدافعك وإلا فقد أعذر من أنذر، فلن يبقى بعد اليوم لصليبي في لبنان مأمن، وكما تضربون ستضربون، فأطفالنا ونساءنا ليسوا أقل حرمة من أطفالكم ونسائكم، وإن لم تنتهوا فسنخلع قلوبكم بالمفخخات، ونحاصر أماكنكم بالعبوات، ونستهدف كل أنواع تجارتكم، بدءاً من السياحة، وانتهائاً بسواها من وسائل الرزق العفن مادمتم أعلنتموها حرباً صليبية جديدة، فيا مرحباً بالنزال، ولا يغرنكم مساندة العرب المرتدين لكم، أو غض طرفنا السالف عنكم، إننا نحذركم وللمرة الأخيرة، ولا يكون بعدها إلا بحور الدم.)
والذي نريده أن تأمروا قائد الجيش اللبناني النصراني بسحب أزلامه من حول المخيمات الفلسطينية عموماً، ومخيم نهر البارد خصوصاً والكف عن قصفه ورفع جميع السيطرات والحواجز الموضوعة لأجله.
فعودوا إلى رشدكم لأنكم معشر الصليب في وسط سني سيغرقكم لو بقيتم على ممشاكم هذا ولم تقبلوا نصحنا.. وأما أهلنا في المخيمات عموماً ونهر البارد خصوصاً فنقول لهم: "والله لن نخذلكم وسترون من أهل السنة عموماً وفي لبنان وطرابلس خصوصاً ما تقر له عيونكم، والله أكبر والعزة للإسلام"

المسؤول العسكري لتنظيم القاعدة في بلاد الشام....

[Casey]

LEBANON: Tense times as rival Islamist groups vie for control of refugee camp

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN
Ain al-Hilweh is the largest and most lawless of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Up to 80,000 people are crammed into the camp’s 1.5sqkm
AIN AL-HILWEH, 5 August 2007 (IRIN) - Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest and most lawless refugee camp, has a street called Sharia Bustan Yahoudi (Jewish Park Street); the irony is a small instance among a litany of indignities suffered by the Palestinian refugees living there.

[Read this story in Arabic or French]

“It’s named after the Jews who used to live around Sidon,” Khoder Abdel Aziz, a 24-year-old resident of the street, tells us, referring to the neighbouring port city, 45km south of Beirut.

“We never thought to change the name and we never harmed the Jewish cemetery inside the camp. But when the Israelis invaded in 1982 they put a fence around it.”

Where once talk of Jews and of the state of Israel - whose creation in 1948 drove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into exile and succeeding generations, such as the youngsters living in Ain al-Hilweh, to the life of a refugee – would have raised angry words, on this hot and tense day the subject brings but a faint murmur.

The threat from within

Today, the most immediate security threat to the lives of the Sunni Palestinian refugees in Lebanon comes not from Israel but from Arabs living within their own refugee camps.

In the northern camp of Nahr al-Bared, a combination of lax security from the mainstream secular Palestinian faction Fatah, combined with a large population of unemployed and restless youths, provided a suitable environment for the rise of Fatah al-Islam.


Photo: Google
A map of Lebanon and the surrounding region highlighting the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon
The Al-Qaeda-styled Sunni extremist group comprises some Lebanese and Palestinians, but is also made up of foreign Arabs, including veteran `jihadis’ from Iraq, and fighters from Saudi Arabia who follow the Wahhabi ideology of `takfiri’, which condemns to death anyone who does not follow their austere form of Islam.

After Fatah al-Islam militants killed dozens of Lebanese soldiers near their checkpoints around Nahr al-Bared on 20 May, intense bombardments and fire fights have destroyed much of the once relatively prosperous and open marketplace camp and triggered a humanitarian crisis among more than 35,000 Palestinians who fled their homes.

In Ain al-Hilweh, where several thousand armed militants – aligned to various groups including Communists, Palestinian nationalists and Islamists pursuing global`jihad’ - vie for control in the tiny 1.5sqkm cinder block camp and its lawless boundary, residents fear a catastrophe similar to Nahr al-Bared could soon befall them.

Hezbollah-backed “security force”

On 4 June, fighters from the loosely knit Jund as-Sham (Soldiers of Greater Syria) `takfiri’ group – which Palestinians say now has no leader and has all but disbanded – attacked the Lebanese army checkpoint outside Ain al-Hilweh, apparently in reaction to the call by Fatah al-Islam for militants in other camps to rise up.

The group is based in a small stretch of no-man’s-land known as Taamir, between the boundary of Ain al-Hilweh and one of the Lebanese army checkpoints that overlooks the camp.

“There was a very major threat that the battle could have been brought here,” Sheikh Abu Ayoub, military commander of the Palestinian Islamist group Ansar Allah (Followers of God), told IRIN in his office in Ain al-Hilweh.

Following the attack, Ansar Allah were tasked with heading a new 80-member Islamist security force controlling two of the camp’s border checkpoints, including the one overlooking the Jund as-Sham stronghold.

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN
Sheikh Abu Ayoub is the military commander of Ansar Allah (Followers of God), a Palestinian Islamist group which controls two of Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp’s border checkpoints

“We have achieved two goals: preventing battles between Palestinians and between Palestinians and the Lebanese army,” said Abu Ayoub, whose group, which he says has 300 armed fighters and 1,000 supporters, split from Fatah in 1991 and began a seemingly unlikely alliance with the Shia militants of Hezbollah.

“We are part of Hezbollah. Everything comes from Hezbollah: financial support, weapons, training. Palestine is an Islamic issue. Hezbollah are Islamic. We are Islamic. There is no conflict between Sunnis and Shias here. We are Muslims.”

Abu Ayoub said Hezbollah have an interest in preventing the rise of Al-Qaeda-styled Sunni extremists in Lebanon, given the brutal sectarian conflict that has engulfed Iraq. Though Hezbollah has not publicly confirmed its support for Ansar Allah, the group has long stressed it allegiance to the Palestinian cause.

Fatah challenges

The remainder of the checkpoints, as well as security inside the camp boundaries, remains the task of Fatah, whose commander in Ain al-Hilweh, Mounir Maqdah, says his militant wing is the largest in the camp.

Fatah militants have had regular deadly clashes with Jund as-Sham over the past six months, and also face a challenge from other armed and more radical Palestinian groups, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) or the Islamists of Usbat al-Ansar (League of Followers).

Maqdah said: “Nothing will prevent a security breakdown if we have something like Fatah al-Islam getting into this camp. That’s why it is so important to establish our own social associations to prevent extremism.”

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN
Fatah commander Mounir Maqdah says his militant wing is the largest in the camp and has Palestinian consensus to control security inside the official camp boundaries

The Fatah commander pointed to the opening in early August of the camp’s first US$5m private hospital which will offer patients free treatment for heart disease. The money is from international donations to various Palestinian humanitarian groups, channelled through what Maqdah said was the Badr Foundation.

The Foundation has also paid for the construction of an education and sports centre, which Maqdah said would be the largest centre built in any Palestinian camp since 1948 when it opens at the end of the month.

“We hope we can attract thousands of unemployed teenagers,” said Maqdah, who had written to the foundation highlighting the need for social services to prevent Palestinian youth falling into the hands of radicals.

Saudi extremists

Abu Ayoub said dozens of Saudi extremists had been expelled from Ain al-Hilweh over the past year and blamed the war in Iraq and Lebanon’s absence of state authority for the security breakdown.

“There were many Saudis expelled from here. They are connected to al-Qaeda and they want to spread chaos. Lebanon is now the new front for al-Qaeda,” he said. According to Abu Ayoub, at least 45 Saudis have been fighting with Fatah al-Islam in Nahr al-Bared, with 30 of them killed, while more have been arrested across Lebanon. The army has confirmed a number of Saudi casualties.

“They come to Palestinian camps in Lebanon because they see them as an easy station on the way to Iraq. Al-Qaeda sees Lebanon as weak because of the split in decision-making and weak security,” he said.

A nine-month old political campaign to bring down the US-backed government by the Hezbollah-led opposition has closed parliament and left cabinet without its six Shia and allied ministers.


Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN
Palestinians living in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship and are thus prevented from working in 76 kinds of job. Many hundreds of Palestinian children drop out of school after completing elementary education to help support their families
Economic fallout

“Life was really miserable before the conflict in Nahr al-Bared started,” said Ibrahim Shehadi, a car mechanic who 20 years ago sold his wife’s jewellery so he could open his business on Sharia Bustan Yahoudi.

Since the outbreak of fighting in Nahr al-Bared, many Ain al-Hilweh businesses have seen their incomes plunge, with Shehadi‘s dropping from a weekly profit of $200 to $70.

“The Lebanese are too scared to come into the camp now to get their cars repaired. What happens in Nahr al-Bared affects us all,” he said. “We are concerned our Palestinian brothers will not be able to return to their camp, and if that happens we will rise up in support of them.”

hm/cb

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=73587

[Casey]

Fatah Islam leader lashes out at Lebanon's army chief in new audio message


2008-01-08 00:04:45 -


CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The fugitive leader of the al-Qaida-inspired militant Fatah Islam group lashed out at the head of Lebanon's army, accusing him of destroying a Palestinian refugee camp as part of deal to become the country's next president, according to an audio tape posted on a militant Web site Monday.

Shaker Youssef al-Absi also warned Gen. Michel Suleiman's followers that they his fighters would «hunt» them down.

The 57-minute tape was the first purported message from the Fatah Islam leader since fighting first broke out between the militant group and the Lebanese military at the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon in May. The battle at the camp ended in early September, and he remains at large.

In the audiotape, titled «Warning and Escape,» al-Absi criticized Lebanon's Suleiman, who led the fight against Fatah Islam and has most recently emerged as a consensus candidate for president.

Nahr el-Bared «is completely devastated and its people have become homeless and Michel Suleiman sits on their skulls from the presidency chair,» al-Absi said.

He accused Suleiman of only waging a battle against Fatah Islam in the camp for political purposes, including appeasing the United States.
«America's intervention forced a deal. They told the commander, 'If you want the presidency, then you must present the head of Nahr el-Bared,»' he said, meaning Suleiman was pressured to destroy the camp.

He also threatened Suleiman's followers and called soldiers who fought under him «infidels.

«I swear to Allah we will not leave you in peace, and we will hunt you down,» he said.

The more than three-month siege at Nahr el-Bared destroyed large parts of the camp. The government has said about 220 militants and 168 Lebanese soldiers were killed, while Palestinian officials have said 47 Palestinian civilians died.

The tape could not immediately be independently verified, but it appeared on a Web site commonly used by Islamic militants. In the tape, al-Absi did not indicate where he was located. Authorities have said he had fled Nahr el-Bared hours before the army took over.

«This is the first word after the heroic battle in Nahr el-Bared camp,» al-Absi said.

Fatah Islam had set up base in Nahr el-Bared in late 2006. Authorities say the group is made up of Muslim militants of various nationalities, and Al-Absi is a Palestinian linked to the late leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for his involvement in the 2002 murder of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman.

Rival lawmakers in Lebanon have agreed to back Suleiman as a compromise candidate for Lebanon's presidency, but his election has been delayed. The parliament must first amend the constitution to allow a sitting military chief to become president, but the process has been complicated by the opposition's demand for a new unity government that would give it veto power.
The politically divided country has been without a president since former President Emile Lahoud's term ended Nov. 23.


http://www.pr-inside.com/print374882.htm

See: http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=71231

[Casey]

See al Qaeda in Palestine thread

http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1212828#post1212828

[Casey]

Lebanon arrests top member of Qaeda-inspired group


TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) — A top member of an extremist Islamist group that waged a 15-week battle against the Lebanese army last year was arrested on Thursday in the northern city of Tripoli, a military official said.

"Security forces raided a home in the Abi Samra neighbourhood and arrested Nabil Rahim, a high-ranking member of Fatah al-Islam in Tripoli," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said Rahim's wife was also arrested in the dawn raid and that a close aide, Zakharia Trabulsi, was seized later in the day after trying to flee police.

The Abi Samra district of Tripoli is known as a hotbed of extremism.

The arrests come days after a man purporting to be the leader of Fatah al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group, threatened renewed attacks against the Lebanese army.

"Our message to the crusaders is to expect the worst. This battle was only the beginning and we will prevail," said a message posted on an Islamist website attributed to Fatah al-Islam's Palestinian chief Shaker al-Abssi.

Almost 400 people were killed, including an estimated 222 militants and 168 soldiers, in the fighting at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon which ended in September after a final assault by the army.

Abssi's fate was unknown after the fighting ended although the Lebanese judiciary issued a warrant for his arrest and that of several dozen other fugitive militants in October last year.

The militia leader's wife had at one stage identified his body in a morgue, although DNA tests subsequently determined it was not Abssi.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gcZEOe-MU9lzIIUae-ROJEoQlW5A

[Casey]

Extremist groups cast shadow over Lebanon - analysts
Fatah al-islam remains 'a serious threat'
By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff
Friday, January 11, 2008



BEIRUT: Thursday's arrest of a Fatah al-Islam official, along with the recording issued this week by fugitive Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi and the bomb attack on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), demonstrate that Islamic extremists still pose a serious threat to Lebanon's security, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Thursday.

Tripoli's Abu Samra neighborhood, where alleged Fatah al-Islam senior member Nabil Rahim was captured with his wife on Thursday, remains a "stronghold" of Islamic militancy, regardless of the strength of Fatah al-Islam, said Ahmad Moussalli, professor of political science and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut.

Fatah al-Islam lost a three-month battle in mid-2007 against the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, while the Lebanon's largest refugee camp - Ain al-Hilweh - also represents a "powder keg" of violence threatening the country, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political science at Notre Dame University and elsewhere.

These Sunni extremist groups could undertake future attacks not only against UNIFIL, but also against any persons or entities they view as representing the Lebanese state, which they see as illegitimate, Hanna added.

Despite the more than 220 Fatah al-Islam militants killed during the three-month siege and the 200 in custody, many more linger in Lebanon, Moussalli said.

"I believe it's a serious threat, and the people captured in Nahr al-Bared only represent a small fraction" of Fatah al-Islam's manpower, he said. "Imagine if they hit northern Israel with rockets or if they blow up a shopping center or supermarket. Don't be amazed if there is a big explosion here or there."

Despite the hundreds of militants seized, the state has not been forthcoming with information about the structure and background of Fatah al-Islam, making it difficult to assess the scope of the danger, he added.

"There are around 300 people captured by the security services in Lebanon, but nothing has been told to the Lebanese people," Moussalli said.

While Rahim's arrest shows that Fatah al-Islam is still operating in Tripoli, the capture also shows that the security forces have made inroads inside the organization, Hanna said.

"It means that they still have some sort of quasi-network system in Tripoli," Hanna said. "He had a safe haven.

"Arresting this guy means that the security apparatus has knowledge. They have inside information. Now this guy will be another source for information for the security services."

"What is important in this kind of fight is human intelligence," Hanna added. "Fatah al-Islam before Nahr al-Bared was mystery. Post-Nahr al-Bared, it became a puzzle. The puzzle is difficult to solve, but you know that you have a solution for it. The $1 million question is: Are they still a threat? Yes. But not like before Nahr al-Bared."

Abssi's audio message, released on Monday and threatening the LAF with further bloodshed, serves as further evidence that Fatah al-Islam lives on, Moussalli said. Rumors had it that Abssi had gone to Iraq and then the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but the Jericho native is probably in hiding here, Moussalli added.

"Most likely, as I think, he's back in Lebanon," Moussalli said. "Most likely [the recording] is done by him. It is an indication that this movement is still alive."

Even if the security forces can eradicate Fatah al-Islam, the conditions that give rise to and feed Islamic extremism persist in Tripoli's impoverished areas, Hanna said.

The militant ideology in Abu Samra combines the Saudi-based Wahhabi strain of Sunni Islam with the call to armed jihad against infidels, in a revolution against traditional Wahhabism, Moussalli said. The political extremism finds fertile ground in the grim economic circumstances of the Abu Samra district, Hanna said.


"The suburbs of Tripoli are the breeding ground for extremism because of the social system of these people," Hanna said. "This is the problem of Tripoli. The safe haven is the belt of poverty that surrounds Tripoli."

The militant movements in the North wind up mixing - in personnel and philosophy - with radical groups in Ain al-Hilweh such as Jund al-Sham and Osbat al-Ansar, Moussalli said.

"They are all inter-related," he said. "They are different formations of the same ideology, and people move back and forth between these movements.

"They are ultimately accepting the Wahhabi jihadism and takfir [infidel] ideology as presented by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri" of Al-Qaeda, he said. "Shaker al-Abssi did go to Afghanistan and was with Osama. He is part of that. Now it is a globalized movement."

The jihad movements are not a tightly coordinated set of militias, and their branches in Ain al-Hilweh are held in check by the presence of other strong Palestinian movements, Hanna said.

"The powder keg is there, but it will be contained," Hanna said. "There is a balance of power over there" between the most radical groups and the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas.

"They will not let these people go out and create problems for the Shiites," Hanna added.

The militants do, however, pose a concrete danger to the international troops of UNIFIL, Hanna said.

"They see the UNIFIL as an occupying force," he said. "They call it the enemy within."

Tuesday's attack against UNIFIL, in which a roadside bomb lightly wounded two Irsih peacekeepers, took place near Sidon in Rmeileh, not south of the Litani River where UNIFIL is strongest, Hanna said.

"Usually, when you are weaker, you go the softer way," Hanna said. "Instead of attacking UNIFIL inside their land, they have targeted these guys on the highway.

"How ready are they to wage war against UNIFIL? How much will Hizbullah allow this to go on?" Hanna asked.

Hizbullah has been coordinating with the beefed-up UNIFIL contingent, which swelled to some 13,000 troops as part of UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war with Israel.

Hizbullah's cooperation with the foreign forces has also made the Shiite group a target for the Sunni militants, Moussalli said.

"They have opposed Hizbullah's acceptance of [Resolution] 1701," he added.

In addition, any part of the state, which also complied with Resolution 1701 and which is seen as working with the West, also faces a threat from the Islamists, Hanna said.

Potential targets include the LAF, LAF commander Michel Suleiman - who has been chosen as a consensus presidential candidate by Lebanon's feuding political camps - and "all that constitutes the Lebanese government," Hanna added.

The peril, however, relates little to the deadlocked domestic political scene, said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center.

The attacks do not "feed into" political disputes, Salem said. "It doesn't have large political consequences. It doesn't reverberate much in the country. It doesn't snowball anywhere."

The threat from Islamic extremism will continue, though, as long as the state remains too weak to tamp down the eruption of violent jihadism which simmers throughout the region, Hanna said. In the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution, regional political currents tiled from pan-Arabism and nationalism to a rising wave of Islamism, he added.

"We are in the process of changing what was [and] not knowing what's coming," Hanna said. "In this transitional phase the price is very high. The war is still going on. There is no end in sight."

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=87950#

[Casey]

Terrorism: Militant arrested in Tripoli 'is al-Qaeda No. 2 in Lebanon'


Beirut, 11 Jan. (AKI) - A man originally described as a leading member of Islamist militant group Fatah al-Islam when he was arrested in an apartment in Tripoli on Thursday, has now also been identified as Nabil Mohammad Ghasub Rahim, the No. 2 of al-Qaeda in Lebanon.

According to a report on the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, Rahim is second only to the fugitive Palestinian chief of Fatah al-Islam, Shaker al-Absi.

Al-Absi purportedly released an audio tape message earlier this week on the Internet threatening renewed attacks on the Lebanese army and pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda.

The report said that Rahim, who is a Lebanese citizen, is the key to terrorism in Lebanon because he is the link there between Fatah al-Islam and other countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, with young Saudi nationals, who form the largest and most powerful component of the militant group.

Rahim, 36, took over as second-in-command from the Saudi national Bassam Humud, who recently returned to his home country.

Rahim is believed to have been hiding in the apartment in the Abu Samra neighbourhood of Tripoli for about 11 months from where he coordinated group's activities including recruitment into the militant group.

He was in contact with another 11 terrorists and the investigators hope to extract from Rahim more information about Fatah-al-Islam, which fought a three-month battle with the Lebanese army last year.

Almost 400 people were killed, including an estimated 222 militants and 168 soldiers, in the fighting at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon. This ended in September after a final assault by the army.


http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1759356626

[Casey]

Gun fire breaks out between army, demonstrators in S Beirut


www.chinaview.cn 2008-01-27 23:16:06


BEIRUT, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A heavy gunfire exchange is taking place between the Lebanese Army and the demonstrators in southern Beirut, local OTV reported on Sunday.

The TV report said that the gunfight erupted when Lebanese army tried to prevent the demonstrators from blocking traffic with burning tires between Mar Mikhail and Al Cheyah neighborhoods of southern suburb of Beirut.

The demonstrators on Sunday walked into streets to pretest over the chronic power vacuum of the presidency.

Lebanon has recently grappled with violence and assassinations, mainly because of the wide chasm between the opposition and ruling majority over the president election, which has been delayed for 13th times.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/27/content_7508224.htm

[Casey]

Jumblat warns Hezbollah of war

The Lebanese Druze leader has warned the Hezbollah-led opposition that the March 14 majority coalition is ready to go to war with them.

"If such circumstances continue we will make saints and sinners suffer alike," Walid Jumblat said Sunday, according to the Press TV office in Beirut.
He accused the opposition of seeking to destabilize the country by waging war on army and the coalition majority.

"We have no problems with weapons, rockets. If you want to create chaos we will welcome it," Jumblat said, alluding to Hezbollah weapons which the group says are only to be used to defend Lebanon against the Zionist regime.
"We will seize the rockets from you because we don't fear martyrdom," DPA quoted Jumblat as saying.

"We cannot let the ruler of Hezbollah (Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah) take the decisions of war on behalf of all the Lebanese," he said, referring to the Israeli 33-day invasion of the country which faced with strong resistance from Hezbollah and led to a humiliating defeat for Israel.



Origin: moqavemat.ir

[Casey]

Hundreds flee as Ain al-Hilweh factions clash
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Saturday, March 22, 2008

SIDON: Fighting flared for the second night in a row in and around the tense Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon on Friday. Few details on Friday's clashes were immediately available, but the began Thursday when armed members from Islamist factions Osbat al-Ansar and Jund al-Sham reportedly opened fire on some Fatah members following the arrest of senior Jund al-Sham commander Houssam Salim Maarouf by Fatah, which directly handed him over to the Lebanese authorities.

Heavy gunfire was heard in the poverty-stricken refugee camp until midnight as a reaction to Maarouf's arrest.

Armed with assault rifles, masked men from Osbat al-Ansar and Jund al-Sham walked around the camp, causing many residents to flee.

Around daybreak Friday a grenade was thrown at the home of a senior Fatah official, causing severe damage.

Rumors spread that Maarouf had been arrested for robbing a jewelry shop in Sidon, but Palestinian sources said he was taken in for questioning because he was suspected of having carried "questionable and dangerous security activities such as communicating with Israel."

"The way the arrest was handled showed that the issue was much more important than a simple matter of burglary," one of the sources said.

Osbat al- Ansar and Maarouf's partisans denied the accusations, saying they were entirely made up by Fatah. They also denounced the arrest as being "an arrangement involving non-Palestinians."


Both Lebanese and Palestinian officials intervened to prevent further escalation and sources said mediation efforts went on until 4 a.m.

"Maarouf's activities went beyond the camp's limits and he is wanted by the Lebanese authorities for his involvement in several security files as well as planning to plant a bomb in the home of a senior Fatah official," said the commander of Fatah's armed wing, Mounir al-Maqdah.

"Any security matter within the camp is the business of the Lebanese-Palestinian Follow-up Committee and the joint Palestinian Armed Forces," Maqdah said.

"Things are back to normal and mediations are still on to solve the problem," he added, speaking hours before the new fighting erupted.

The Follow-up Committee held a meeting with the Lebanese Armed Forces' intelligence chief in the South, Colonel Abbas Ibrahim, at his office in Sidon during which he stressed what he called the investigation's "impartiality."

"If proven innocent, the suspect will be freed," he said, "but if proven guilty, he will get the punishment he deserves."

When fighting resumed on Friday, most of it took place in the Tiri neighborhood, which abuts the camp and is populated mostly by Lebanese. Hundreds of families fled their homes again, and efforts to retore the truce were under way as The Daily Star went to press.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=90141

[Casey]

Fatah-Jund al-Sham Fight it Out in Ein al-Hilweh, Casualties

At least one person was killed and four were wounded in fierce hit-and-run clashes between rival factions in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ein al-Hilweh overnight, Palestinian sources reported Saturday.

The clash between fighters of the mainstream Fatah faction and militants of the Jund al-Sham terrorist gang spread across the densely-populated camp on the southern edge of the port city of Sidon.

Jund al-Sham militants attacked areas controlled by Fatah fighters with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and Kalashnikov assault rifles, inflicting damage to property and setting fire to several residential apartments and shops.

Jund al-Sham, according to witnesses in Ein al-Hilweh, accused Fatah of setting the stage for an all-out assault to uproot the fanatic gang from the camp, the largest Palestinian refugee population center in Lebanon.

Tension started late on Thursday when Fatah fighters captured a Jund al-Sham ranking commander known as Hussam Maarouf and turned him over to the Lebanese Army.

Maarouf is wanted for scores of crimes and attacks committed both in Ein al-Hilweh and other parts of Lebanon and accused of maintaining links with the Fatah al-Islam terrorist network.

Clashes subsided early Saturday, but families that fled the camp overnight remained in shelters provided by mosques in Sidon, fearing renewal of clashes.

Jund al-Sham is reportedly headed by a wanted Lebanese man from the northern town of Tripoli known as Ghandy Sahmarani, who goes by the code-name of Abu Ramez.

Sahmarani led a fierce confrontation with Lebanese troops in Ein al-Hilweh last summer as the regular force clashed with Fatah al-Islam terrorists in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

Most of Jund al-Sham's fighters are Lebanese citizens who had sought refuge in Ein al-Hilweh since 1999 after fighting a fierce confrontation against the Lebanese Army in the northern Dinnieh mountainous terrain.

The camp is off limits to Lebanese troops and law enforcement agencies.



Beirut, 22 Mar 08, 09:11
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&95E8644476E53F9DC22574150028BD99

[Casey]

Syria Deploys Three Military Divisions on the Border with Lebanon

Syria has deployed three military divisions along the borders with Lebanon amidst mounting tension in the region, press reports said Sunday.

The leading daily an-Nahar attributed the report to well informed sources, noting that the deployment backs a similar massing of fighters by pro-Syrian Palestinian factions in the Bekaa valley, especially Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in the Qoussayah area.

The development followed Hizbullah's open war declaration against Israel after the Feb. 12 assassination in Damascus of the party's Imad Mughniyeh by a bomb explosion.

Hizbullah is sponsoring a major rally in south Beirut's suburb of Rweis on Monday to commemorate Mughniyeh, labeled commander of the "two victories" in reference to the Liberation of south Lebanon from Israeli occupation in May 2000 and the 34-day war against Israel in the summer of 2006.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has pledged that "thousands of Imad Mughniyehs would confront the Zionist enemy if it invades Lebanon."

Israel has ordered its troops on alert to confront a possible attack by Hizbullah operatives when the party marks Mughniyeh's memorial rally on Monday, 40 days after his assassination.



Beirut, 23 Mar 08, 09:29

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&95E8644476E53F9DC22574150028BD99

[Casey]

New cease-fire 'ends fighting' between Fatah and Islamists at Ain al-Hilweh
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, March 25, 2008

SIDON: Quiet returned to Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp over the weekend after a cease-fire between Islamic militants and fighters of the mainstream Fatah faction ended heavy clashes. The hundreds of civilians who had fled the fighting in the densely populated Ain al-Hilweh camp outside the southern port city of Sidon began returning to their homes after the truce took hold.

Fatah fighters exchanged rocket fire with militants of Jund al-Sham for some four hours in the camp's main street late on Friday prompting the exodus of civilians.

Gunshots were subsequently heard in Sidon itself, with a Fatah leader saying at least four people had been wounded in the fighting.

"There is a cease-fire ... The regrettable clashes that took place have ended" following mediation by another Islamist group, Osbat al-Ansar, Fatah official Mounir al-Maqdah said.

He said the Jund al-Sham fighters had agreed to leave the camp and Fatah security agentsChoosing-an-Exec-Protection-Firm would take control.

"There won't be a second Nahr al-Bared at Ain al-Hilweh," said Makdah, referring to the three months of fierce fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam militants that destroyed the northern Palestinian refugee camp.

Maqdah could not specify whether the wounded were civilians or fighters, and had no information on anyone being killed in the clashes.

A Lebanese Army spokesman had said the fighting had been confined to the camp and that troops, who by longstanding convention do not enter Lebanon's dozen refugee camps, had not got involved.


The army blocked entry to the camp, which is home to at least 45,000 people, but allowed civilians to leave.

More than 100 Palestinian families took refuge in Sidon, some finding shelter in mosques while others spent the night in their vehicles.

A Palestinian official said the militants of the Jund al-Sham had been angered by Fatah's seizure of a commander of the group and his handover to the Lebanese Army.

"[On Thursday] the Fatah organisation in the camp kidnapped a member of Jund al-Sham named Samir Maarouf who is accused of carrying out bomb attacks inside the camp and outside," a Palestinian official told The Daily Star on Thursday.

"The Fatah forces handed over Maarouf to the Lebanese Army," he said, adding the captive was suspected of links to militants outside Lebanon.

Jund al-Sham, which has no clear hierarchy or particular leader, is believed to have about 50 militants armed with assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Its fighters joined Fatah al-Islam's fight against Lebanese troops in the Nahr al-Bared camp last year.

The group's name refers to the ancient Islamic term of Bilad al-Sham, a region which covers Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Its members are mostly Lebanese, many of whom fought against the army during an Islamist rebellion that broke out on New Year's Eve in 1999 in the predominantly Sunni area of Dinnieh in North Lebanon and left 45 people dead. - With AFP

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=90205#

[NYer]

More "Boyz In Da Hudna?"

[Casey]

What Zawahri's words really mean for Lebanon and the 'war on terror'
By Bilal Y. Saab and Magnus Ranstorp

Monday, May 05, 2008

First person by Bilal Y. Saab and Magnus Ranstorp


Recently, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri released yet another long message urging Muslims worldwide to join insurgencies, mainly in Iraq, where he claimed the "jihad" against the Iraqi government and the US-led coalition forces was bearing fruit. Zawahri also turned his anger on Hamas for its reported willingness to accept a peace deal with Israel. Reserving a few words for Lebanon which he called a "Muslim front-line fort,, he said that that country will play a "pivotal role in future battles with the Crusaders and the Jews."

While Zawahri was mistaken to suggest that Lebanon is a "Muslim front-line fort," he was correct in his assessment that the country may play an important role in Al-Qaeda's global Islamic insurgency.

There are two reasons why Lebanon is and will most probably never be a "Muslim front-line fort":

One, Lebanon's multi-confessional and segmented societal structure plays against any major attempts by Al-Qaeda to establish a solid presence. Al-Qaeda has tried to boost its presence in Lebanon over the past decade but has largely failed due to the considerable challenges it has faced with regard to recruitment. In Lebanon, the crushing majority of Sunni Muslims are totally opposed to Al-Qaeda.

Two, even Al-Qaeda's few but dangerous sympathizers in Lebanon are not too keen on waging an offensive jihad against the "infidels," be it the "apostate" Lebanese government or the multinational force. Although groups like Osbat al-Ansar and others may see Zawahri as a heroic figure symbolic of their collective struggle, they do not necessarily feel compelled to subordinate themselves to him or any other Al-Qaeda leader.

This does not suggest that Al-Qaeda is not a serious threat to Lebanon; it is. Lebanon is in Al-Qaeda's sights. The events of Nahr al-Bared last summer were indicative of the relative ease with which Al-Qaeda in Iraq was (and still is) able to transfer fighters - via Syrian territories and with Syrian acquiescence - to Lebanon and cause terror and havoc. Meanwhile, Lebanon has had its own terrorism problem with the presence of groups such as Osbat al-Ansar and others who share Al-Qaeda's worldview.


So what did Zawahri mean when he said Lebanon has a "pivotal" role in the global jihad? What role does Lebanon play in Al-Qaeda's calculations?The reality is that Lebanon has turned into a place where jihadist travelers can quietly meet, train, and plan operations against Israel and the West. And this happens mostly in the troublesome Palestinian camp of Ein al-Hilweh in Sidon. There are increasing signs that radicalized European nationals are learning their trade in that camp to be re-inserted back into Europe

Al-Qaeda's senior leaders recognize the big challenges their organization would face in waging jihad on Lebanese soil. This is why they may have settled for using Lebanon as a staging ground to the Palestinian and European theaters and not so much as a jihadist battlefield. Still, terrorist operations against the international force in the South will be praised and welcomed, as Zawahri has repeatedly reminded his followers. Given how Al-Qaeda views Lebanon, the country might be spared the fate of Iraq. However, the West and the international community still need to work closely with the Lebanese government to prevent Al-Qaeda from setting up shop.


Bilal Y. Saab is senior research assistant at the Saban center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Magnus Ranstorp is research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defense College. They wrote this article for THE DAILY STAR.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=91716#

[Casey]

Urgent .. Renewed clashes in the districts of Beirut

-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

Urgent news:
22:32 hear the sound of rocket-propelled grenades in the Nuer and the renewed firing intensively
22:30 intensive gunfire at Barbour and illumination and darkness prevails through the streets of New

عاجل.. تجدد الاشتباكات في احياء بيروت

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

خبر عاجل:
22:32 سماع دوي قذائف صاروخية في النويري وتجدد إطلاق النار بشكل مكثف
22:30 اطلاق نار كثيف في بربور والنويري والظلام يعم شوارع منطقة طريق الجديدة


23:40-Manar: the proliferation of armed Al-Musaitbah and fired RPG from areas surrounding patiently towards the skies Ghubeiri
23:35-Manar: the proliferation of armed in different areas of Beirut, a pound, Mar Elias direction Clemenceau, but did not record any friction pm
23:33-Manar: the future brought gunmen from the north



23:40 المنار: انتشار مسلح في المصيطبة واطلاق قذائف ار بي جي من مناطق محيطة بصبرا باتجاه سماء الغبيري
23:35المنار: انتشار مسلح في مناطق مختلفة من بيروت، وهي القنطاري، مار الياس ياتجاه كليمنصو ولكن اي احتكاكات لم تسجل حتى الساعة
23:33 المنار:المستقبل استقدم مسلحين من الشمال

[Casey]

CNN is reporting now that their crew in Beruit is pinned behind a building as the situation is worsening with a Shia and Sunni neighborhood exchanging fire.

Hezbollah says the government has declared war.

[Casey]

Western nations start planning Lebanon evacuations


ROME (AFP) — Western nations began drawing up plans to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon on Friday, with governments advising against travel to a country on the brink of all-out civil war.

Italy led the way with a "national (air) bridge" being set up by new foreign minister Franco Frattini, ANSA news agency quoted him as saying on his first full day in office.

Elisabetta Belloni, head of a crisis unit in the Italian foreign ministry, told Italian television that Frattini had asked for a review of an existing evacuation plan, although she added it had yet to be activated.

Opposition Hezbollah gunmen seized control of predominantly Muslim west Beirut from pro-government forces on Friday -- the third day of sectarian violence which has seen at least 11 people killed and dozens wounded.

Rome's new foreign minister, who was sworn in on Thursday, asked that "special attention be paid to the central part" of Beirut where the fighting has been the heaviest, Belloni said.

The foreign ministry said some 600 Italians live in Beirut, including about 50 in the city centre.

Italy's 2,500 soldiers make up the largest contingent in the 13,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was beefed up in 2006 following a war between Hezbollah fighters and Israel in southern Lebanon that left more than 1,200 people dead.

Hours after taking the oath of office, Frattini said Italy may rethink the rules of engagement for its UNIFIL soldiers.

Britain meanwhile warned its citizens on Friday to give Lebanon a wide berth, amid concerns that the conflict will deepen.

"We advise against all travel to Lebanon. The violent exchanges on the streets of Beirut and elsewhere between opposition and pro-government groups ... continue to pose a danger to bystanders," the Foreign Office said.

It cautioned Britons currently in Lebanon to "exercise particular vigilance at this time and wherever possible avoid areas where there has been fighting in recent days."

London also warned that visitors to the country were likely to get stuck there, with roads to neighbouring Syria subject to closure.

Other countries took broadly similar lines, with the Slovak foreign affairs ministry said all non-essential travel should cease immediately.

"In case of imperative journeys they should contact the Slovak embassy in Damascus," foreign ministry spokesman Igor Skocek told AFP.

In the Netherlands, the Dutch foreign ministry said it was prepared for the eventuality of evacuations, adding: "It's not on the agenda for the moment, but if it becomes necessary, we're ready."

The Hague had already advised against travel to Beirut, but extended the warning to the rest of Lebanon on Friday, with Norway following a similar course.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbP6i7bS_DPITr6u9vETbMmdoEbg

[Casey]

Warden Message
May 10, 2008

As stated in the current Travel Warning for Lebanon, the Department of State continues to strongly urge that Americans defer travel to Lebanon and that American citizens in Lebanon consider carefully the risks of remaining.

In a crisis situation, American citizens are responsible for arranging commercial or private means of transportation to depart Lebanon. American citizens wishing to depart Lebanon are urged to do so, keeping in mind that options are currently limited.

Major roads to Beirut International Airport remain blocked, and there is only limited airline service at present. Violent clashes in several areas in and around Beirut have been reported, and it is still not known when the airport road will re-open and normal air transport services will resume. The main road to Damascus remains blocked.

American citizens wanting to depart may wish to consider chartering private watercraft to Cyprus. Until such time as travel services out of Lebanon become available, the U.S. Embassy urges American citizens to ensure they have an adequate supply of food, water and other essential items and to remain safely inside their homes. Americans are encouraged to review their travel plans following resumption of normal air services.

The U.S. Embassy remains open for business; however, Nonimmigrant Visa processing has been suspended except under special circumstances. American Citizen Services and Immigrant Visa processing are functioning normally. American citizens are urged to avoid the airport road and any other areas where demonstrators are gathered, and to monitor the local media for information regarding the security situation.

For the latest security information, Americans should regularly monitor the Department's web site at http://travel.state.gov/ where the current Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings, including the Travel Warning for Lebanon, and Travel Alerts can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the U.S. and Canada, or, for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).

Americans living or traveling in Lebanon are encouraged to register with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate through the State Department's travel registration website, BeirutACS@state.gov if they
have questions about services provided by the section; they may also call 04 543 600 and ask for the American Citizen Services Section on Mondays or Fridays between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Any American citizen in need of emergency services outside of these hours may contact the Embassy by telephone at any time. The telephone numbers are (961-4) 542-600, 543-600, and fax 544-209. Website: http://lebanon.usembassy.gov/. The Arabic language website is: http://arabic.lebanon.usembassy.gov/.

http://lebanon.usembassy.gov/warden_messages/msg051008.html

[Casey]

Qatar evacuates citizens from Lebanon
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&month=May2008&file=Local_News2008051121021.xml

Lebanon: Evacuation of Saudi Nationals Underway
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=12680

Italy readying evacuation plan for Lebanon
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL0993732

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait begin evacuating nationals from Lebanon
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/09/content_8138253.htm

[Casey]

Analysis: Fears of al-Qaeda forging links in Lebanon
Published: Sunday, 15 June, 2008 @ 5:57 PM in Beirut (GMT+2)
By : Abigail Fielding-Smith

Tripoli - "It's going to be us and al-Qaeda against Hezbollah." Sitting in a disused warehouse in the Bab-al-Tebbaneh district of Tripoli, a Sunni fighter explains how the ad-hoc militia that he helped command in the recent fighting are preparing for the future.

Softly-spoken and courteous, speaking to The Scotsman on condition of anonymity, he pauses to offer cigarettes. "When we hear al-Qaeda are threatening the Shia, we do celebratory gunfire," he says.

Al-Qaeda has had major setbacks recently. In Iraq, at least according to the CIA, it has suffered "near-strategic defeat", while missile strikes have killed some top figures in Pakistan.

It is believed to be looking for new fronts to open. In the past month, jihadi websites have been abuzz with discussion on how best to exploit the situation in Lebanon. With internal security in disarray and sectarian tension at a peak after Hezbollah's humiliating take-over of Beirut last month, the country could offer an opening.

When Hezbollah, a Shia party, brandished its power, some of Lebanon's Sunnis felt humiliated. Their Grand Mufti, Qabbani, warned that they had "had enough", bringing fears his words could be interpreted as a signal to fight back.

"After the Mufti's speech, we received funding from rich Sunni individuals," claims the Bab al Tebbaneh fighter. "What happened has pushed us into more co-ordination. We have more contact. We are ready. This is happening all over the country. We have no problem with al-Qaeda coming in, if they want to defend the Sunnis."

Lebanon has swung repeatedly between bursts of optimism about the "Switzerland of the Middle East", with its beaches, night-life and ski resorts, and tragically destructive wars involving Israel, Hezbollah, and other Lebanese and Palestinian factions.

Sunnis in Lebanon, a majority Muslim country, are chiefly interested in getting back to business and work. But in some areas they are demanding a more radical response. If Sunni Muslims feel vulnerable, it could be a good time for Sunni extremists, some with ties to al-Qaeda. Analysts are worried.

"Extremists are at the peak of their possible popularity and recruitment ... they could cause a security upheaval," said Timur Goksel, a security expert at the American University of Beirut.

Unlike some of his comrades, the Bab-al-Tabbaneh fighter is not a Salafist - a Sunni fundamentalist - which makes his tolerant attitude to al-Qaeda all the more disturbing.

Tripoli has a history of Salafism. But although they have grown in visibility in recent years, the Salafists are not as powerful as they were in the 1980s. After Hezbollah and allied fighters shelled the city last month, however, Sunni public opinion is increasingly demanding a more radical response.

"The Future Movement (Lebanon's mainstream Sunni political party] are all engineers and doctors," says Araby Akkawi, a well-connected local. "The feeling is that you need an extreme Muslim group to face another extreme Muslim group."

Khaled Daher, a former parliamentarian from north Lebanon, echoes this: "The Future Movement's weapon is education. The Sunnis cannot keep on holding pens in front of rifles."

The Future Movement's Saad Hariri suffered a major blow to his prestige at the hands of Hezbollah. But it is unlikely anyone will supplant him as the political leader of Lebanon's Sunnis. "No-one else has the amount of international support he has," said Mr Akkawi.

The Future Movement has no military strategy for dealing with Hezbollah and has exerted pressure on armed Sunni groups to exercise restraint. But, Mr Akkawi says, the Future Movement has "no power over extremist suicide bombings".

Security incidents have occurred on an almost daily basis in the past month. An audio tape released on Monday purported to be from the leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group Fatah Islam, which killed over 100 Lebanese soldiers at Nahr al Bared refugee camp last year.

It suggested that "the car bombs of Iraq and brigades of martyrdom-seekers" would be the next stage of the conflict. "Me, personally I'm ready to become a suicide bomber," says the Bab-al-Tabbaneh fighter.

"I am training my boy to fight Hezbollah," he says, showing us a picture of a child holding a rocket- propelled grenade.

It is not clear who was behind the recent attempted suicide bombing mission from Ein el Helweh refugee camp. But the more militant sections of the Sunni population see such actions as a boost for their cause.

In the main mosque in Tripoli last Friday, Sheikh Bilal Baroudi told worshippers to "take advantage" of the "rage" they were feeling, ending his sermon on an ominous note: "What happened at Ein el Helweh is just the beginning."

Formidable fighting force with power and prestige

HEZBOLLAH, the Party of God, is a Shia group which has a formidable military wing - supplied by Iran. It first emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980s and became the leading radical Islamic movement in the region, with the goal of driving Israeli troops from the country.

In May 2000, its prestige received a huge boost when Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon. In 2006, they returned, provoked by Hezbollah's cross-border attacks, but if the month-long conflict was an effort to break Hezbollah's military power it failed. Last month, in a show of force, Hezbollah took temporary control of Sunni-majority West Beirut.

Sunnis in Lebanon have resented Hezbollah's power for a long time. Al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, also sees Hezbollah as the enemy, despite the fact that they share an anti-Israel, anti-US agenda.

This is partly because extreme Sunnis see the Shia as infidels and partly because Hezbollah control Lebanon's Southern border with Israel, which al-Qaeda thinks should be open for jihad.

The past few years have seen an increase in extremist Sunni groups, some of whose members have fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq, using Lebanon's refugee camps as a base. Both foreign and local Sunni extremists, it is thought, are seeking to exploit the current anger and fear amongst Lebanon's Sunnis to strengthen their positions.

No official census has been taken of Lebanon's estimated four million people since 1932, reflecting political sensitivity over religious balance. It is thought that Muslims account for about 60 per cent of the population.

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/06/analysi_fears_o.php

[Casey]

Splintered loyalties, shattered lives: bombings and shoot-outs in Ain il-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, are a portent of a growing power struggle between Arafat's mainstream Fatah and a new breed of Islamic fundamentalism. Giles Trendle recently spent two months in Ain il-Hilweh

Giles Trendle

Early one morning last November Ibrahim Shayeb and his family awoke, terrified, to the deafening sound of an explosion at their home in the Ain il-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon. Dynamite had been placed outside their front door. The explosion blew out the metal front door and smashed all the windows, as well as those of neighbours in the narrow alleyway. Shrapnel from the blast narrowly missed several butane gas canisters in the front hallway.

"We don't know who did this," said Nariman, Ibrahim's wife. "Thank God it was a Sunday and the children were still sleeping. I wonder what we did for them to put a bomb outside our house."

The reason is likely to lie in the fact that Ibrahim Shayeb is a senior official of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in Ain il-Hilweh. In recent months some 30 bombs have been placed outside the homes and under the cars of various Fatah officials in the camp. The bombs are placed early in the morning in what seems a crude attempt to avoid indiscriminate casualties. No one claims responsibility, but the bombs seem to be a direct challenge to undermine the authority and standing of Fatah in the camp. The bombings have raised the level of tension within Ain il-Hilweh. So too has the sporadic fighting between Fatah gunmen and Islamic militants in recent months. It all points to a power struggle between Arafat's mainstream Fatah and a new breed of Palestinian Islamic fundamentalism with leanings toward the militancy of Osama bin Laden. Approximately one square mile in size, Ain il-Hilweh is Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp with over 70,000 residents, almost one-sixth of the estimated 376,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Based on the outskirts of Sidon in south Lebanon, the camp's geographical location is politically meaningful. The Awali river at the northern entrance to Sidon marks the ostensible boundary of Syrian army presence in Lebanon. In the refugee camps to the north of the river--such as those in Beirut and Tripoli--the Damascus-based rejectionist fronts hold sway. Ain il-Hilweh camp lies south of the Awali river, where the Lebanese army is in control. Being outside the direct sphere of Syrian control allows for greater political opportunities for a myriad of Palestinian factions. The popular committee, which runs the camp affairs, reflects the kaleidoscope of political factionalism.

The committee comprises representatives from Fatah and four other factions loyal to Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation as well as representatives from 10 factions loosely labelled the Palestinian opposition alliance (loyal to Syria). Occasionally representatives from an assortment of Islamic fundamentalist groups in the camp are invited to participate. Fatah aims to be the first among equals in the camp. Ain il-Hilweh has been a stronghold of Ararat for many years and the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority in Lebanon. Yet this predominance is being increasingly challenged.

For a start, many camp residents oppose the peace accords Arafat signed with Israel. The overwhelming majority of refugees in the camp are `48-ers', those who fled (or whose ancestors fled) their homes during the 1947-48 war in Palestine that led to the creation of the state of Israel. They feel the peace accords obtained to date by Arafat treat their problem as a peripheral matter, when in fact it was the origin, and remains the core, of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"The whole cause of Palestine is the refugee cause," says Youssef Maqdah, the camp representative of the Palestine Liberation Front, a Damascus-based faction that split from Arafat and the PLO in 1968. "When we began our revolution in the 1960s, we started from the point of wanting to return to our land. This is the aim of our cause. We can't consider a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as a solution."

Mounir Maqdah, a former commander in Arafat's elite Force 17 who later turned Fatah opposition leader, holds similar views to his uncle. When Arafat signed the Oslo Accord in 1993, Mounir Maqdah accused the Palestinian leader of betraying the four million Palestinians in exile, not to mention the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza. He broke with Arafat to form his own faction, which he called the Black September 13 Brigade (in recognition of the day on which the Oslo Accord was signed). He has since changed the name of his faction to the People's Army.

Mounir Maqdah believes any form of negotiation with Israel is futile and damaging as it entails a tacit recognition of the existence of the Israeli state which, he feels, is tantamount to a legitimisation of both Israel's occupation of Palestine and the permanent departure of the Palestinians from their land. He believes armed struggle, by way of what he calls "resistance, jihad and martyrdom", is the only way to liberate the whole of Palestine. "The Jews have to leave Palestine and return to their land of origin," explained Maqdah from his base in the camp. "Whoever came from America must go back to America, and whoever came from Europe must go back to Europe. This is Palestinian land for Palestinian people. There will be no security for the Israelis as long as one grain of dust of our Palestinian land is occupied and as long as one Palestinian refugee remains outside his land and his home."

Ibrahim Shayeb balks at such combative rhetoric. He feels Maqdah is missing the point of what is, he believes, Arafat's cunning `softly-softly' approach to win back all of Palestine.

"The world today doesn't accept a Palestinian state from the sea to the river," explained Shayeb, referring to the whole of the former British Mandate Palestine. "It will only accept a Palestinian state and an Israeli state. The Oslo accord is Yasser Arafat's step-by-step strategy. Today we take half a metre, the next day one metre, the day after one more metre. This strategy is the right way."

This strategy is totally unacceptable to the new breed of Islamic fundamentalist groups who have labelled Arafat an `infidel' for negotiating with Israel. Foremost among these groups is the Usbat al-Ansar (League of Partisans). Usbat al-Ansar rejects all Arab and Muslim regimes and its major goal is to create a global Islamic state.

The group is reluctant to speak with reporters and refuses any requests to take pictures of them. Its leader, Abu Mohjen, has been in hiding since being sentenced to death in absentia by a Lebanese court for the assassination of a rival Islamist leader in 1995. Many in the camp say Abu Mohjen has in fact fled Lebanon. Local press reports suggest the group received money from Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, to organise the transfer of Palestinian fighters in Lebanon to Bin-Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. Reports speculate that a number of Usbat al-Ansar fighters and a scattering of Al Qaeda members have returned to Lebanon in the wake of the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. However, no evidence is available. After the 11 September attacks, the United States added Usbat al-Ansar to its list of terrorist organisations linked to Al Qaeda. More recently the US accused the Usbat al-Ansar of having nerve gas supplied by Iraq--a charge most camp residents regard as faintly ridiculous. Two incidents last year revealed how the Usbat al-Ansar is acquiring for itself greater leverage in the camp, at the expense of Fatah's traditional influence. Usbat al-Ansar was central in negotiations with the Lebanese state authorities to ensure the departure from the camp of a tiny band of Al Qaeda-linked rebels, known as the Dinnieh group who had launched a failed Islamic rebellion in northern Lebanon in January 2000. Usbat al-Ansar also took the key role in negotiating the handover of an Islamic militant, accused of the killing of three army intelligence officers, to the Lebanese authorities. At each stage of the negotiations, Fatah's role was relegated to accepting or refusing solutions rather than imposing them.

Such diplomacy suggests there may be truth in local reports that the Usbat al-Ansar has distanced itself from Bin Laden. This may account in part for a split in the organisation in late 2001. Since then, sporadic gun battles have erupted between Usbat al-Ansar gunmen and fighters from the breakaway faction, Jamaat al-Nour (Association of the Enlightened).

In a concerted effort to maintain support in a situation spiralling out of control, Arafat's Palestine Authority sends a monthly allowance to loyalists in the camp. One senior Fatah official estimated that the Palestine Authority was feeding no less than US$1.5m each month into the camp. The money pays the salaries of loyalists across a wide range of activities, from politics, military, education, cultural activities and business. It also paid for the cost of repairs to Ibrahim Shayeb's house--and his neighbours shattered windows.

Camp residents say even Mounir Maqdah is on Arafat's pay roll. If such speculation is correct, then Arafat appears to be courting Maqdah's militancy while able to maintain a degree of plausible deniability. Maqdah is reckoned to be closer to his Fatah roots than to the new breed of Islamic fundamentalist groups in the camp, and Arafat may deem it worthwhile to have him onside. But Arafat may be playing with fire. Maqdah was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for having links with Al Qaeda and plotting attacks against Israeli and US targets in the Hashemite kingdom. He is also accused by Israel of directing and financing suicide attacks inside Israel carried out by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement.

Maqdah appears to be harnessing information and communication technology to evolve new organisational and operational strategies that will allow for more offensive capabilities within and beyond the Middle East. Despite being holed up in Ain il-Hilweh, he runs a network of global contacts via the Internet and his mobile telephone.

"We can't go up against the Israeli occupation army to army because of its huge capability and the support it gets from America and the world," said Maqdah. "So we confront this occupation by a war of small groups. This type of warfare spreads and scatters. Every group can work by itself with a leader and decision-maker deciding the right time and place to fight. This type of organisation is a complex system, which is very difficult to destroy. And it can reproduce itself and grow on a daily basis."

Amid the political divisiveness in the camp and the determination of leaders to pursue the conflict with Israel to the bitter end, the majority of residents continue to bewail their daily circumstances. They are deprived of the right to work in Lebanon and concerned with cutbacks in UNRWA, the United Nations agency which provides welfare and health services to the refugees. With no discernible hope of returning to their homeland, and having suffered the Lebanese civil war, Israeli invasions, and ongoing factional warfare in the camps, many continue to live in a state of emotional turmoil.

COPYRIGHT 2003 IC Publications Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2742/is_2003_Feb/ai_n25062471/print?tag=artBody;col1

[Vancouver]

http://zafer888.elaphblog.com/ << a blog, opened two weeks ago and empty so far, which claims to be about Fatah al- Islam. The username of the blogger
ظافر المصري
Zafer al-Masri, matches a username at Hesbah.

[Vancouver]

There is fighting underway in Ein al-Hilwe between Fatah and some group called Jund ash-Shams (Army of the Levant). A photo of one of the dead on the JaS side, called Ahmed Hassan, has been uploaded by a very well-connected francophone web moderator calling himself Al_Qassam. Despite that handle, he and every other Qaidaista hates Hamas nowadays, almost as much as they hate Fatah.

[NYer]

...He and every other Qaidaista hates Hamas nowadays, almost as much as they hate Fatah.

Nothing like a little Red on Red, eh Van?

[Casey]

I am reading on a forum posted 5 minutes ago there has been attack in Lebanon.

عاجل انفجار كبير في طرابلس

A great explosion overtook in Tripoli

[Casey]

Blast hits bus carrying soldiers in Lebanese city

Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:30am EDT

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - An explosion struck a bus carrying soldiers in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Monday, witnesses and media said.

Future News television said at least 10 people were killed or wounded in the blast, which occurred in the Buhsas area at the southern entrance of Tripoli during the morning rush hour.

Six weeks ago a bomb blast hit a bus in the city, killing 15 people including 10 soldiers.

(Writing by Nadim Ladki)
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE48S0SN20080929

[NYer]

Related to recent Damascus car bomb?

[Casey]

Bin Laden ally 'planned to head for Lebanon'


Daily Star staff
Wednesday, November 12, 2008

BEIRUT: The "radical preacher" once described as Osama bin Laden's "ambassador to Europe" plans to flee his legal troubles in the United Kingdom and head for Lebanon, British press reports say. The Evening Standard newspaper reported Monday that Abu Qatada was "back in custody ... after being suspected of plotting to flee the country."

Qatada, who was freed in June after a failed bid to deport him to Jordan on charges of terrorism, had been held at his West London home but is believed to have been planning to flee to Lebanon, despite not having a passport, the daily wrote.

The UK Borders Agency received a tip that Qatada was planning to flee, the daily reported. An emergency session of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission was then convened and ruled that he had "attempted to breach one of his 22 bail restrictions" before a judge "ruled in favor of the Home Office's application to cancel bail as a temporary measure." Government lawyers will now apply for him to be locked up permanently.

The Evening Standard quoted a government source as saying "the Middle East would have been his most likely destination - probably Lebanon."
Another daily, the Sun, quoted government sources as saying: "We believe there is sufficient evidence to prove that he was planning to jump bail and flee Britain. In view of the strict bail conditions and the fact he has no passport, it would have been a pretty audacious plot."

Lebanon's army fought a three-month battle last year to dislodge the Fatah al-Islam militant group from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, in which at least 400 people died. - The Daily Star

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=97623

[Casey]

Fatah al- Islam: Fatah al-Islam Detainee Explains Operations Against Army and UNIFIL

Confessions of a Fatah al-Islam detainee named Hussam Salim Maarouf disclosed complicity of fifty individuals working on forming a gang to carry out terrorist attacks."

He explained that al-Qaeda and Fatah al-Islam groups carry out attacks against United Nations Independent Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) as well as firing Katyousha rockets into northern Israel.

The daily as-Safir on Tuesday stated that Maarouf," had expressed his willingness to move to Iraq, he was asked to exhibit his "experience" in arms and explosives. He began training elements on making explosives."

A house was used at Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp as a secret location for this purpose, the paper said.

The daily went on to add that Maarouf played many "military roles" confined to the camp, participating in many military formations against LAF and in support of Jund al-Sham.

Maarouf was asked by Osama el-Chahabi to build a rocket and fire it towards northern Israel, to videotape the event and send it to al-Qaeda in Iraq via the Internet.

The purpose behind this was," to encourage sending elements to Ain al-Hilweh for rocket building and training, to be exported later to anywhere al-Qaeda wants."

As-Safir related that Maarouf had identified an individual named Yussef to have planted an explosive aimed at an Irish force working under UNIFIL last January.

The paper pointed that Maarouf had confessed to Lebanese authorities that rockets were being smuggled to Ain el-Hilweh at intervals through two individuals known with their connection to al-Qaeda. The rockets were intended for use against UNIFIL, LAF or northern Israel.

Judge Maroun Zakhour issued arrest warrants against Maarouf and 45 others including Abdel Rahman Awad, Osama el-Chehabi.

Beirut, 25 Nov 08, 14:04
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&D20B9B0D72C0BC1FC225750C0041A492

[Casey]

Jund Al Sham commander Ghandy Al Sahmarani killed in Ain Al Hilweh
iloubnan.info - December 25, 2010

Jund Al Sham Senior commander Ghandy Al Sahmarani was found killed in Ain Al Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday, AFP reported.

Fatah commander in Lebanon Mounir Maqdah explained that Ghandy Al Sahmarani was an official in Jund Al Sham organization; he has been residing in the Taamir sector for many years. His body was found in a car parking, he added.

Mohammed Abdel Hamid Issa, head of the Palestinian Armed Struggle, told to Voice of Lebanon that Sahmarani was forbidden from entering Ain Al Hilweh because he was wanted by the security forces, especially Fatah and the situation in the camp is under control.

http://www.iloubnan.info/politics/actualite/id/53573