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Sunday May 20, 2007 Full Story [ PAGE 1 ] Pictures [ PAGE 2 ]
Syrian Sponsored, Funded Terror Group Attack Lebanese
Army N.Lebanon
Mini Timeline:
May 8th - Leader of AL-QAEDA LEBANON - SHAKIR AL-ABSSI
Travels to Syria
May 9th - Syrian President Assad Reportedly Warns UN
SEC GEN He will Burn Entire Region over Hariri Tribunal
May 14th - Prime Minister Fouad Siniora Sends an Official Letter to UN Requesting Tribunal
May 17th - Draft Chapter 7 Resolution Circulating UN Sec Council Members, US/France/UK
May 19th - Al-Qaida Starts its Operations in N.
Lebanon
May 20th - Shakir Al-Abssi Arrives in Damascus for
further meetings.
May 20th - Lebanon Under Siege
Latest News:
High-ranking Fatah Al-Islam officer killed by army
The Lebanese army on Sunday shot down a
high-ranking officer within the Fatah Al-Islam group, after clashes
broke out in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
A Lebanese military source said that the man, known as Abu Mayzen, was the third assistant to the group leader Shaker Al-Absi.
The group was reported to have infiltrated to Lebanon from across the
border and had taken refuge in one of the city's suburbs, in a
Palestinian refugee camp knows as Nahr Al-Bared.
The man, who is believed to be behind explosions that targeted civilian
buses in the Meten town of Ain Alaq earlier this year, was one of
several outlaws shot down in one of the city's streets during
mopping-up operations by Lebanese law and order forces.
Syrian Sponsored, Funded Terror Group Attack Lebanese Army N.Lebanon
This is the Reason that ALL LEBANESE SHOULD UNITE AROUND THE FOLLOWING:
1. Full Implementation of UN Resolution 1559 / 1701
2. Complete Disarmament of ALL MILITIAS in Lebanon (Per Taif Agreement / 1559 / 1701)
3.
To Accomplish this We Must Ask The International Community for
Assisstance to Accomplish This. Namely: UN Forces to Deploy In Lebanon
under Chapter 7, with the Lebanese Army to:
a. Seal the Border with Syria and Prevent Iranian/Syrian undermining of the duly elected Government of Lebanon.
b. Protect the Civil Society in the Lebanon from Militias used by Syria and Iran to destabilize the Lebanon.
c. Start a Program that ALL MILITIAS in the Lebanon turn in their weapons to UN/Lebanese Army.
The
World Council for the Cedars Revolution fully supports the duly elected
Lebanese Government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. In addition: The
World Council for the Cedars Revolution makes its utmost urgent request
that this Government do more to solve the problems of Lebanon.
In the Past The World Council for the Cedars Revolution has urged this
Government of Prime Minister Siniora to ask the United Nations to Solve
Lebanons Problems under Chapter 7, and that this Government of Prime
Minister Siniora has repeatedly rejected our calls informing the World
that Lebanon can solve its problems internally.
The
World Council for the Cedars Revolution Completely rejects this based
on one Principle: The Internal Problems of Lebanon are caused by
external forces: Iran and Syria. Thus, the Problems of Lebanon must be
addressed in this context.
The
past is conclusive evidence that its goal of achieving unity amongst
the Lebanese is not going to work unless #1, 2 are fully implemented
(PRE REQUISITES to UNITY).
The
intention of this Government has always been to Stabilize the Lebanon,
Provide Security to its Citizens and achieve Unity Amongst the
Lebanese.
While
this seems good on paper, unfortunately it is very unrealistic. If this
Government does not ask the International Community (THE UNITED
NATIONS) to come into Lebanon under Chapter 7, then it will be seen as
1. Failing upon its stated goals and its duties and Responsibilities.
World Council for the Cedars Revolution.
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Shakir Al-Abssi - AL-QAEDA Leader in Lebanon (Introduced into the Lebanon by
Syria) Threatens attacks inside the United States:
![Photo](r763094150.jpg)
Shaker al-Absy, head of Fateh al-Islam, holds a news conference in
al-Bared refugee camp near the port-city of Tripoli in north Lebanon March 13,
2007.
"they are claiming that they have the right to
kill Americans inside the U.S., not just strike our military assets in Iraq and
elsewhere." --U.S. intelligence source speaking on condition of
anonymity to the Northeast Intelligence Network.
Latest:
Subject: Syria Introducing AL-QAEDA into Lebanon for the First
Time.
Syrian Masterminded War of Terror Waging on Lebanon and the Region.
Will The West Allow AL-QAEDA to Spread to Lebanon, Will the West Continue to
Allow Syria to Manipulate Lebanon / Iraq and the Region.
Syria setup Proxy in Lebanon unleashes AL-QAEDA War on Lebanese Army in
N.Lebanon. The First Time AL-QAEDA has been reported in Lebanon.
Syria exported AL-QAEDA to the Lebanon to manipulate the Lebanon and the
Region for its benefit. Syria Under Pressure in the International Tribunal -
which the US is circulating a Chapter 7 Resolution in the UN Security Council
this past week - with intentions of passing it soon.
Syria Promised UN Sec General in a phone call the 9th of May that he would
set the region on fire from the Caspian to the Mediterranean over Syrian
Objections to the International Tribunal in the Assassination of former Lebanese
Prime Minister Hariri. Initial UN Investigation finds Top Syrian Leaders
Involvement - which if true could lead to the downfall of this Syrian
Regime.
Latest news:
The Lebanese army engaged in deadly fighting with AL-QAEDA Militias - also
known as Fatah al-Islam (previously known as Fatah al-Intifada) militants in the
northern port city of Tripoli and the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr
al-Bared Sunday, officials said.
Seven Lebanese soldiers and four Fatah al-Islam militants were killed in the
fierce fighting, which involved tank and grenade fire, Internal Security Forces
chief Gen. Ashraf Rifi told Agence France Presse.
LBCI TV station said three gunmen were also killed when Lebanese soldiers
launched an assault at noon on Abdo building in Tripoli's Miatain street where
the militants were hiding. It said a fighter was arrested during the
clashes.
At least seven vehicles were also burned and many more damaged in the
building's surroundings, the LBCI added.
Syria on Sunday closed its border with northern Lebanon following heavy
battles between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants.
As stated on the 13th of May, This Terror Government of Syria, President
Bashar Assad is masterminding the destruction of Lebanon so that he can reenter,
and the destruction of the region so that the West will leave and to put
international pressure on the West and the UN to relieve the pressures that are
on his regime concerning the International Tribunal in the Hariri case.
The closer we get to the UN Tribunal in the former Lebanese Prime Ministers
Assassination, the more we are going to hear from the Syrians, i.e. Death and
Destruction.
This "reported" flare up between the Syrian President and the UN Sec. General
- is the beginning of regional instability in the Mid East. Combine this with
engaging Iran and its nuclear vision and the situation in Iraq.
Facts:
May 20 (Reuters) - At least seven soldiers and four gunmen were killed in
fighting on Sunday pitting the Lebanese army against militants from Fatah
al-Islam group in northern Lebanon.
Here are some facts about Fatah al-Islam:
- The faction emerged in November when it split from Fatah al-Intifada (Fatah
Uprising), a Syrian-backed Palestinian group. Fatah al-Islam had some 200
fighters at the time, based in Nahr al-Bared camp. Security sources have said
militants from other Palestinian camps have joined the group since then and have
been trained at the camp.
- The Lebanese government links Fatah al-Islam to Syrian intelligence. Syria
and Fatah al-Islam deny any links to each other. The government says four Syrian
members of Fatah al-Islam confessed to bombing two buses in February in a
Christian area near Beirut. Three people were killed in the attacks.
- Fatah al-Islam's leader, Shaker al-Abssi, is a veteran Palestinian
guerrilla. He was sentenced to death in Jordan for killing a U.S. diplomat in
2002. The slain leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi, received a
similar sentence for the same crime.
- Abssi says his group has no organisational links to al Qaeda but agrees
with its aim of fighting infidels. Fatah al-Islam statements have appeared on
Islamist Web sites known to publish al Qaeda statements.
- Abssi told Reuters in March that his group's main mission was to reform the
Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon according to Islamic sharia law before
confronting Israel.
Al Qaeda Battle Kills 19 In Lebanon
Updated: 14:42, Sunday May 20, 2007
At least 19 people have died in battles between Lebanese troops and
militants in Lebanon. SkyNewsLondon
Fatah al-Islam is linked to al Qaeda
Eleven Lebanese soldiers were among the dead in the fighting with al
Qaeda-linked militants in the north of the country.
A minister said the clashes with the Fatah al-Islam group, which the
government says is backed by Syria, seemed timed to try to derail UN efforts to
set up an international court to investigate political killings in Lebanon.
The soldiers were killed at Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near
Tripoli and in an attack on an army patrol in al Qalamoun, just south of the
city.
Four Fatah al-Islam fighters were killed in the camp, which is home to 40,000
Palestinian refugees.
Medical sources in the camp said four civilians, including two children, had
also been killed and 45 wounded.
The army had tightened its grip around Nahr al-Bared camp since authorities
charged Fatah al-Islam members with two bus bombings in near Beirut in February.
Three civilians were killed by the bombs.
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Assad Threatens to Set the Region on Fire
Syrian President Bashar Assad has threatened to set the region on fire, from
the Caspian to the Mediterranean, over differences with the United Nations
regarding Lebanon's stability.
The independent daily newspaper an-Nahar quoted well informed diplomatic
circles as saying Assad made the threat last Wednesday in a telephone discussion
with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The sources, according to the paper spoke of a "heated dialogue" between
Assad and Ban, during which the Syrian President "threatened to set the region
on fire, from the Caspian to the Mediterranean."
The focus of the telephone discussion was creation of the international
tribunal that will try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-Premier
Rafik Hariri and related crimes, the report explained.
It stressed that the tribunal issue will be a topic of discussion within the
U.N. Security Council as of Monday.
Following the tense discussion with Ban, Assad on Thursday announced that his
country is not concerned with the international tribunal, stating that the court
is "a special topic concerning Lebanon and the United Nations."
Lebanese MP Saad Hariri son of the slain premier, had announced that the
tribunal will be created under chapter seven of the U.N. Charter.
Hariri and factions of the March 14 majority alliance blame the ex-premier's
killing and related crimes on Syria. Damascus denies the charge.
Beirut, 13 May 07, 09:55 Naharnet
Timeline:
NOV 2006
- The daily newspaper al-Moustaqbal reported on Nov. 30 that Syrian
President Bashar Assad has sent 200 terrorists to Palestinian refugee camps in
Lebanon to assassinate 36 Lebanese public figures.
Members of the network, infiltrated into Lebanon from
Syria last November under the cover of the so-called "Fatah-Islam" group, which
was set up by Syrian intelligence with the objective of carrying out terrorist
attacks to destabilize Lebanon and block the ratification of the international
tribunal which would try suspects in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik
Hariri and related crimes.
Feb 13, 2007 - Ein Alaq Bombing 3
Killed, 20 wounded
Feb 22, 2007 - Syria’s terror
networks
Farid Ghadry from the Washington DC Based Reform Party of Syria - Commentary
Analysis
The al Qaeda connection is not that far removed. Arab papers report that the
recent movement of large numbers of al Qaeda in Iraq fighters from Syria into
Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon and Beirut are sounding alarm
bells that the Syrian security services are preparing to use these heavily armed
and visibly well-funded cells to launch attacks against the anti-Syrian
democratic government of Lebanon.
These cells are directed by Syrian extremists such as Shakir Absi, Abu Qa Qa,
Sheikh Hashem Minqara and Abu-Khalid Imlah, who have historical ties with Syrian
intelligence; all were formerly imprisoned in special detention centers run by
the Political Security Directorate and then suddenly released by the good graces
of Syrian security around the same time in 2005. Absi and Imlah maintain the
strongest ties to Syrian intelligence. Absi — a former officer in the Syrian air
force — and Imlah — the former head of SMI — supported Fatah al-Intifadah — who
later created his own Fatah al-Islam offshoot.
What’s more, European security services are warning that senior al Qaeda
leadership figures Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi and Atiyah Abdul-Rahman have tasked al
Qaeda assets in the Levant to prepare for major international operations
targeting Western Europe and even the U.S homeland. Operational planning is said
to be progressing with potential targets already cased out. And these are just
the Sunni extremists that the Syrians support.
http://cedarsrevolution.net/blog/?p=150
March 1, 2007 - “Founder of Fatah Al-Islam: we want to
expand in all the camps in Lebanon”
Asharq Al Awsat, an independent Saudi owned newspaper, published in its March
1 issue an interview with the founder of the Fatah Al-Islam group Shaker
Al-Abbsi.
http://cedarsrevolution.net/blog/?p=164
March 13, 2007 - Lebanese Gov.
Press Conference Held Ein Alaq Bombers Identified
Lebanese police have busted a Syria-based terrorist network on charges of
carrying out the twin-bus bombings north of Beirut last month and planning
further attacks, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa announced Tuesday.
Sabaa said four of the five Syrian suspects have been detained, including one
of the two culprits in the twin-bus bombings in the mountainous town of Ain Alaq
northeast of Beirut, which resulted in killing three people and wounding more
than 20.
Sabaa refused to disclose the names of the culprits, but stressed that they
are all Syrian nationals operating under the banner of Fatah-Islam group which
is controlled by "the Syrian security (intelligence) system."
Police chief Gen. Ashraf Rifi, talking to reporters during the joint news
conference with Sabaa, said "modern technical equipment were used in the
investigations that led to the arrests of the ring members."
Rifi stressed that Fatah-Islam is "not affiliated with Islam at all. The
banner was used for camouflage."
Earlier reliable sources told Naharnet that the arrested suspects were
provided with forged identity cards identifying them as Palestinians and Saudis
in addition to Syrians.
They said two remain at large and are believed to be hiding at north
Lebanon's Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
In addition to the arrests, police officers confiscated a "large quantity of
explosives" that were hidden in the Beirut apartment of Syrian suspect
identified as Mustapha Siyor.
Members of the network, according to the source, infiltrated into Lebanon
from Syria last November under the cover of the so-called "Fatah-Islam" group,
which was set up by Syrian intelligence with the objective of carrying out
terrorist attacks to destabilize Lebanon and block the ratification of the
international tribunal which would try suspects in the 2005 assassination of
ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes.
Siyor's cell had been operating under cover from an apartment in Beirut's
Christian neighborhood of Karm el-Zaytoun, which is part of the capital's
Ashrafiyeh district, the source said.
However, Sabaa said the suspect had also rented apartments in Dora and Kornet
Shehwan.
Sabaa said police confiscated an explosive charge similar to the two used in
the twin bus bombings at Ain Alaq.
He said the suspects were also "ordered" to carry out a motorcycle bomb
attack targeting the Phalange party office in the mountain resort of Bikfaya
close to Ain Alaq.
The daily newspaper al-Moustaqbal reported on Nov. 30 that Syrian President
Bashar Assad has sent 200 terrorists to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to
assassinate 36 Lebanese public figures.
The group, according to the report, operated under the Fatah-Islam name.
The security source said Fatah-Islam is just a "cover" for the terrorist
network that operates in Lebanon from bases controlled by the so-called
Fatah-Intifada group, a Syrian-controlled faction that broke away from Yasser
Arafat's mainstream Fatah early in 1983 as part of an effort by the late Syrian
President Hafez Assad to create a substitute for Arafat's Palestine Liberation
Organization.
Fatah-Intifada, led from Damascus by the so-called Abu Moussa, runs fortified
bases in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley established when the area was controlled by
Syria's army which ended its deployment in Lebanon in April 2005.
Fateh al-Islam holds first News Conference
![Photo](r221461580.jpg)
Shaker al-Absy (2nd R), head of Fateh al-Islam, listens during a news
conference as his unidentified colleague (2nd L) speaks in al-Bared refugee camp
near the port-city of Tripoli in north Lebanon March 13, 2007. Fateh al-Islam
denied any link to the bus bombs in the Christian village of Ain Alaq. The sign
on the wall reads, " There is no God but Allah, Prophet Mohammad is the
messenger of Allah". REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim (LEBANON)
Note: Lebanon's Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa announced late Tuesday
that the culprits of the Ain Alaq Bombing are all Syrian nationals operating
under the banner of Fatah-Islam, a radical Palestinian group which is controlled
by “the Syrian security (intelligence) system.”
![Photo](r763094150.jpg)
Shaker al-Absy, head of Fateh al-Islam, holds a news conference in
al-Bared refugee camp near the port-city of Tripoli in north Lebanon March 13,
2007. Fateh al-Islam denied any link to the bus bombs in the Christian village
of Ain Alaq. REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim (LEBANON)
Note: Lebanon's Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa announced late Tuesday
that the culprits of the Ain Alaq Bombing are all Syrian nationals operating
under the banner of Fatah-Islam, a radical Palestinian group which is controlled
by “the Syrian security (intelligence) system.”
March 16, 2007 Article NYTimes - AL-QAEDA Leader
Vows Attacks on US, Inside US
In Lebanon Camp, a New Face Of Jihad Vows Attacks on
U.S.
By SOUAD MEKHENNET and MICHAEL MOSS; MARK MAZZETTI CONTRIBUTED
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON, and MARGOT WILLIAMS FROM NEW YORK.
New militant Islamic organization called Fatah al Islam, led by
fugitive Palestinian Shakir al-Abssi, trains fighters and spreads ideology of Al
Qaeda from refugee camp in Tripoli, Lebanon; Abssi is former associate of Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia who was killed last summer;
Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia along with Zarqawi in 2002
assassination of American diplomat in Jordan Laurence Foley; intelligence
officials estimate that Abssi has assembled militia of ...March 16, 2007
March 23, 2007 -
According to Reuters, the Lebanese army has tightened its
grip around the Nahr al-bared camp since Fatah al-Islam members bombed two buses
in a Christian area near Beirut in February.
Late March, 2007 -
Syrian Sponsored, Funded Group and its Leader Identified
AL-QAEDA Introduced into Lebanon by Syrian Sponsored and Funded Group. The
daily newspaper al-Moustaqbal reported on Nov. 30 that Syrian President Bashar
Assad has sent 200 terrorists to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to
assassinate 36 Lebanese public figures.
Palestinian fugitive and Islamic terrorist Shakir al-Abssi, 51, a
former associate of the deceased al Qaeda butcher Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Shakir
al-Abssi, a/k/a Shaker al-Abssi, is the leader of Fatah al Islam, a new
Islamic terrorist organization. Al-Abssi is based in Lebanon and was sentenced
(along with al-Zarqawi) to death in absentia for the 2002 assassination of U.S.
diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan. Shakir al-Abssi has a long history of
violence and spent three years in a Syrian prison. He was also once a pilot for
Yasser Arafat.
March 23, 2007 - Reuters
Interview with Shakir Al Abssi
![Photo](r1743538865.jpg)
Palestinian fighters of the Fatah al-Islam group undergo military
training in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon March 23, 2007. The
group founder, Shaker al-Abssi, has come under the spotlight in Lebanon since
November when he and 200 fighters broke off from the pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising
group and founded their own faction: Fatah al-Islam. The group quickly earned
notoriety and was alternately linked to al Qaeda and Syria, raising fears that
Lebanon could witness large-scale attacks on Western and other targets. Picture
taken March 23, 2007. To match feature LEBANON PALESTINIANS/GROUP. REUTERS/Jamal
Saidi (LEBANON)
![Photo](r1082042288.jpg)
Fatah al-Islam group founder Shaker al-Abssi speaks during an interview
with Reuters in his office in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon
March 23, 2007. Abssi has come under the spotlight in Lebanon since November
when he and 200 fighters broke off from the pro-Syrian Fatah Uprising group and
founded their own faction: Fatah al-Islam. Picture taken March 23, 2007. To
match feature LEBANON PALESTINIANS/GROUP. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON)
March 25, 2007 - Sheikh Mohammed Al Hajj Hassan - Lebanese Leader of the
Free Shiite Movement Reveals on Cedars Revolution Radio Show that "We are being
threatened and intimidated by the Syrians - revealed in this weeks show. Sheikh
Mohammed reveals a list of 26 named personnel in Lebanon that the State of Syria
is targeting.
March 28, 2007 - Fateh
al-Islam: The untold story
An unachieved journey to Al Qaeda and
ambiguous link with Fatah-Intifada
Al Hayat visited Fateh al-Islam in its northern camp in “Al Bared”, where
nearly all speak classical Arabic with a Syrian accent.
http://cedarsrevolution.net/blog/?p=278
April 9, 2007 - UN Concerned Arms
Transfers from Syria to Proxies in Lebanon (Militias)
UN Secy-Gen. Ban Ki-moon’s Lebanon report prompts belated Security
Council move on arms smuggling from Syria to Hizballah
April 9,
2007
France has circulated a draft statement expressing serious concern at
mounting reports of illegal arms transfers from Syria to Lebanon. The draft
proposes authorizing an independent mission to assess if the border is being
monitored.
Such arms transfers were expressly banned by UN Resolution 1701 under the
ceasefire which ended last summer’s war between Israel and Hizballah. When the
incoming UN secretary visited Lebanon two weeks ago, he was armed with evidence
garnered by Israel, including maps, of banned arms transition across the border
for the last six months. Israeli security officials report that by now Hizballah
has almost finished restocking its pre-war arsenal. But better late than
never.
April
17, 2007 - SECURITY COUNCIL EXPRESSES SERIOUS CONCERN AT MOUNTING INFORMATION OF
ILLEGAL ARMS MOVEMENTS ACROSS LEBANESE-SYRIAN BORDER
http://cedarsrevolution.net/blog/?p=343
April 23, 2007 - Lebanese Solder
Shot Dead in N.Lebanon
![Photo](capt.sge.rte09.230407184418.photo00.photo.default-512x338.jpg)
AL-QAEDA in
Lebanon, also known as Fatah Al-Islam, Fatah Al-Intifada - Syrian Sponsored,
Funded and Armed militants (many analysts believe that they are fromed by Syria
to create chaos in Lebanon and destabilize and overthrow the demoratically
elected Government of Prime Minister Siniora and relieve pressures of the
International Tribunal) of the Palestinian Islamist group Fatah al-Islam patrol
the refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in north Lebanon, March 2007. A Lebanese
soldier was shot dead on Monday at the entrance to the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian
refugee camp in northern Lebanon, a military source said.(AFP/File/Ramzi
Haidar)
May 8th - Leader of AL-QAEDA LEBANON - SHAKIR AL-ABSSI
Travels to Syria
May 9th - Syrian President Assad Reportedly Warns UN
SEC GEN He will Burn Entire Region over Hariri Tribunal
May 19th - Al-Qaida Starts its Operations in N.
Lebanon
May 20th - Shakir Al-Abssi Arrives in Damascus for
further meetings.
May 20th - Lebanon Under
Siege
May 20, 2007 - Lebanon's
army battle Fatah al-Islam militants accused of robbing a bank a day earlier.
The ensuing clashes kill thirteen soldiers and 19 militants.
There are conflicting accounts of what triggered the
clashes. Lebanese authorities report they began shortly after police raided a
Tripoli apartment looking for suspects in a $120,000 bank robbery a day earlier
in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli. Palestinian radicals resisted arrest and
are still holed up. Meanwhile gun battles spread.
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DEBKAfile May 20, 2007: The Lebanese army brought in tanks Sunday after Fatah
al-Islam adherents seized its positions at the entrance to the Palestinian Nahr
al-bared camp. The fighting spread to the town of Tripoli itself after the
terrorists opened fire on roads leading to the city and ambushed a Lebanese
military unit. Scores of soldiers armed with automatic rifles and rocket
launchers are patrolling Tripoli’s streets and reinforcements are streaming from
other parts of Lebanon.
Syria has shut two border crossing.
There are conflicting accounts of what triggered the clashes.
Lebanese authorities report they began shortly after police raided a Tripoli
apartment looking for suspects in a $120,000 bank robbery a day earlier in
Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli. Palestinian radicals resisted arrest and
are still holed up. Meanwhile gun battles spread.
According to Reuters, the Lebanese army has tightened its
grip around the Nahr al-bared camp since Fatah al-Islam members bombed two buses
in a Christian area near Beirut in February.
Cabinet minister Ahmad Fatfat linked the clashes to efforts
to derail UN moves to set up an international tribunal to try suspects in the
2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri.
Fatah al-Islam was formed last year by Palestinians who broke
away from the Syria-backed Fatah Uprising group. Its leader, Shaker al-Abssi
describes his group's main mission as being to reform the Palestinian refugee
community in Lebanon according to Islamic sharia law before confronting Israel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Face of Jihad Vows Attacks
Fakher al-Ayoubi
Shakir al-Abssi, in a white headdress, at the camp for
militants that he runs outside Tripoli, Lebanon. By SOUAD MEKHENNET and MICHAEL MOSS
Published: March 16, 2007 NYTimes
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Deep in a violent and lawless slum just north
of this coastal city, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with
Kalashnikovs.
Skip to next paragraph
The New York Times
Two key Lebanon refugee camps are breeding grounds for Islamist
anger.
Bryan Denton for The New York Times
LOCUS OF ANGER In Ain el Hilwe refugee camp
south of Beirut, a poster shows a leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed. A
Sunni group there has been sending fighters to Iraq.
The New York Times
Hussein Hamdan, 19, repeatedly slashed his forearms “just to
make a statement.” He says he wants to wage jihad against “Jews or Americans.”
Fakher al-Ayoubi
JIHAD LEADERS IN LEBANON Abus Sharif, left,
the deputy commander of the radical Sunni group Asbat al Ansar, in Ain el Hilwe.
He said the United States would be “paid back” for oppressing people. Shakir
al-Abssi, leader of Fatah al Islam, right, at his compound outside Tripoli. “The
only way to achieve our rights is by force,” he said.
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 organization called Fatah al Islam,
whose leader, a fugitive Palestinian named Shakir al-Abssi, has set up
operations in a refugee camp here 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 of
Mesopotamia who was killed last summer, Mr. Abssi was sentenced to death in
absentia along with Mr. Zarqawi in the 2002 assassination of an American
diplomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley. Just four months after arriving here from
Syria, Mr. Abssi has a militia that intelligence officials estimate at 150 men
and an arsenal of explosives, rockets and even an antiaircraft gun.
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Mr. 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.”
Mr. Abssi’s organization is the image of what intelligence officials have
warned is the re-emergence of Al Qaeda. Shattered after 2001, the organization
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 Shaikh Mohammed, who has acknowledged directing
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and a string of other terror plots, represents the
previous generation of Qaeda leaders, Mr. Abssi and others like him represent
the new.
American and Middle Eastern intelligence officials say he 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,” said an American intelligence official, speaking on
condition of anonymity. Mr. 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 here say that he has also exploited another source of
manpower: they estimate he has 50 militants from Saudi Arabia and other Arab
countries fresh from fighting with the insurgency in Iraq.
The officials say they fear that he is seeking to establish himself as a
terror leader on the order of Mr. Zarqawi. “He is trying to fill a void and do
so in a high-profile manner that will attract the attention of supporters,” the
American intelligence official said.
Mr. Abssi has recently taken on a communications adviser, Abu al-Hassan, 24,
a journalism student who dropped out of college to join Fatah al Islam. His
current project: a newsmagazine aimed at attracting recruits.
The arc of Mr. Abssi’s life shows the allure of Al Qaeda for Arab militants.
Born in Palestine, from which he and family were evicted by the Israelis, Mr.
Abssi, 51, said he stopped studying medicine to fly planes for Yasir 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.
The Times arranged to speak with Mr. Abssi through a series of
intermediaries, who helped set up meetings in his headquarters at the Nahr al
Bared refugee camp. Mr. 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 where training was under way. About 80 men were in the compound,
performing various tasks, including one who manned an antiaircraft gun. As Mr.
Abssi spoke, two aides took notes, while a third fiddled with a submachine gun.
A bazooka leaned against the wall behind him.
In a 90-minute interview, his first with Western reporters, Mr. Abssi said he
shared Al Qaeda’s fundamentalist interpretation and endorsed the creation of a
global Islamic nation. He said killing American 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?” Mr. Abssi said. “It is
our right to hit them in their homes the same 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, Mr. 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 the February bombing of two commuter buses carrying Lebanese Christians.
Mr. Abssi denies any involvement and says he has no plans to strike within
Lebanon.]
Fertile Soil for Militants
Inside the Palestinian camp, Mr. Abssi seems to be building his operation
with little interference.
Maj. Gen. Achraf Rifi, general director of Lebanon’s Internal Security
Forces, says the government does not have authority to enter a Palestinian camp
— even though Mr. Abssi is now wanted in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on terrorism
charges.
To enter the camps, he 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 Mr. Abssi or his men to slip in and out.
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have long been fertile ground for
militancy, particularly focused on the fight against Israel. But militants in
those camps now have a broader vision. In Ain el Hilwe camp, an hour’s drive
south of Beirut, another radical Sunni group, Asbat al Ansar, has been sending
fighters to Iraq since the start of the war, its leaders acknowledged in
interviews.
“The U.S. is oppressing a lot of people,” the group’s deputy commander, who
goes by the name of Abu Sharif, said in a room strewn with Kalashnikovs. “They
are killing a lot of innocents, but one day they are getting paid back.” A
leading sheik in the camp, Jamal Hatad, has a television studio that broadcasts
12 hours a day with shows ranging from viewer call-ins to video of Mr. bin
Laden’s statements and parents proudly displaying photographs of their martyred
children.
“I was happy,” Hamad Mustaf Ayasin, 70, recalled in hearing last fall that
his 35-year-old son, Ahmed, had died in Iraq fighting American troops near the
Syrian border. “The U.S. is against Muslims all over the world.”
On the streets of the camp, one young man after another said dying in Iraq
was no longer their only dream.
“If I had the chance to do any kind of operation against anyone who is
against Islam, inside or outside of the United States, I would do the
operation,” said Mohamed, an 18-year-old student, who declined to give his last
name.
Hussein Hamdan, 19, who keeps a poster of Osama bin Laden in the bedroom he
shares with two sisters, is a street tough attuned to religious fundamentalism.
He dropped out of school at age 10, spent 18 months in jail on assault charges,
and in March — “just to make a statement,” he said — took a razor and repeatedly
slashed both his forearms. “I want to become a mujahedeen and go to jihad in any
country where there are Jews or Americans to fight against them,” he said.
Lebanon has increasingly become a source of terror suspects. One of the Sept.
11 hijackers came from Lebanon, as did six men charged with planting bombs on
German trains last summer. Two other Lebanese men and a Palestinian were among
those accused last spring of plotting to blow up the PATH train tunnels beneath
the Hudson River.
The Killing of Innocents
Mr. Abssi said he derived much of his spiritual guidance from Abu Abdullah
Muhammad al-Bukhari, a ninth-century Islamic scholar. A recent study by the
Defense Department’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., listed Mr. Bukhari among the 20
Islamic scholars who had greater influence today among militant Arabs than Mr.
bin Laden.
“Originally, the killing of innocents and children was forbidden,” Mr. Abssi
said. “However, there are situations in which the killing of such is
permissible. One of these exceptions is those that kill our women and
children.”
“Osama bin Laden does make the fatwas,” Mr. Abssi said, using the Arabic word
for Islamic legal pronouncements. “Should his fatwas follow the Sunnah,” or
Islamic law, he said, “we will carry them out.”
His closest known association with Mr. Zarqawi involved the killing of Mr.
Foley. In previously undisclosed court records obtained by The Times, Jordanian
officials say that Mr. Abssi helped organize the assassination, working closely
with Mr. Zarqawi.
A senior administrator for the United States Agency for International
Development, Mr. Foley was leaving his home in Amman on Oct. 28, 2002, when he
was shot at close range by a man who had hidden in his garage. Seven bullets
from a 7-millimeter pistol struck his neck, face, chest and stomach, the
Jordanian government said in court papers.
Eleven men were charged in the case, and two men have been hanged, including
the gunman, Salem Sa’ad Salem bin Saweed. According to the court records, Mr.
Saweed met Mr. Abssi five years earlier in Syria, where they became friends and
“arranged military operations against American and Jewish interests in Jordan.”
Mr. Zarqawi provided the $10,000, along with $32,000 more for additional
attacks, the court papers say. But in meeting Mr. Saweed, Mr. Zarqawi told him
to work through Mr. Abssi, who helped the gunman with money, logistics and
training in weapons and explosives.
Mr. Saweed and an accomplice in Jordan chose Mr. Foley as a target by
watching his neighborhood for cars bearing diplomatic plates.
A Valid Target
In the interview with The Times, Mr. Abssi acknowledged working with Mr.
Zarqawi. He said he played no part in Mr. Foley’s death, but considered him a
valid target. “I don’t know what Foley’s role was but I can say that any person
that comes to our region with a military, security or political aim, then he is
a legitimate target,” he said.
[Mr. Foley’s widow, Virginia Foley, said Wednesday that she thought her
husband’s killers had either been killed or jailed. “I’m appalled and surprised
that there is still somebody out there,” she said, when told of Mr. Abssi’s
current activities.]
The American intelligence official said the prosecution of Mr. Foley’s
killers was under the control of the Jordanians.
At the time of Mr. Foley’s death, Mr. Abssi had been in jail for two months,
having been arrested on charges of plotting attacks inside Syria. He ultimately
served three years in prison, says Mounir Ali, a spokesman for the Ministry of
Information.
Mr. Ali denied recent reports in Lebanon that Syria sent Mr. Abssi to that
country to stir trouble there. “This accusation is baseless,” Mr. Ali said.
“After he was set free he restarted his terrorist activities by training
elements in favor of Al Qaeda.”
He said Syria sought his arrest in late January, but discovered Mr. Abssi had
“disappeared, and no one knew where he went.”
Late last November, Mr. Abssi moved into the Palestinian camp here, seized
three compounds held by a secular group, Fatah al Intifada, raised his group’s
black flag, and issued a declaration saying he was bringing religion to the
Palestinian cause. Mr. Abssi reappeared on Jordan’s radar in January when police
had a three-hour battle with two suspected terrorists in the northern Jordanian
city of Irbid, killing one of the men. Authorities say they learned that Mr.
Abssi had sent the men. A short while later, Lebanese authorities picked up two
Saudi Arabian men leaving Mr. Abssi’s camp, and learned both men had fought in
Iraq. Two more men were found leaving the camp in February, General Rifi
said.
General Rifi said officials were trying to learn as much as possible about
Mr. Abssi’s operation from sources and surveillance, but it was clear that their
information was limited. In questioning people, security officials are showing a
photograph of Mr. Abssi that is 30 years old, though it displays his most
distinctive feature — two moles, one on each side of his nose.
The apparent inability to apprehend Mr. Abssi provokes fury in the men who
are hunting him. A security official in one of the countries where he is wanted
scowled when asked why Mr. Abssi was operating freely: “I can go lots of places
to grab people, but I can’t grab him.”
In the interview with The Times, Mr. 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 that 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,” he said. “These people
have now started to adopt the right path.”
Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington, and Margot Williams from
New York..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S., not just American interests, the target of Palestinian
terrorist leader
Submitted by admin on Mon, 2007-03-26 12:12. U.S.
News
Northeast Intelligence Network, http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/
By
Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
"Most people inside our intelligence agencies aren’t getting that message.
Listen to what al-Abssi is saying: ‘the West is waging war against Islam’ and
they [the Islamists] are claiming that they have the
right to kill Americans inside the U.S., not just strike our military assets in
Iraq and elsewhere." --U.S. intelligence source speaking on
condition of anonymity to the Northeast Intelligence Network.
26 March 2007: Earlier this month, media sources reported, but essentially
glossed over the threats made by Palestinian fugitive and Islamic terrorist
Shakir al-Abssi, 51, a former associate of the deceased al Qaeda butcher Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi. Shakir al-Abssi, a/k/a Shaker al-Abssi, is the leader of Fatah
al Islam, a new Islamic terrorist organization. Al-Abssi is based in Lebanon and
was sentenced (along with al-Zarqawi) to death in absentia for the 2002
assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan. Shakir al-Abssi has a
long history of violence and spent three years in a Syrian prison. He was also
once a pilot for Yasser Arafat.
Last week, a U.S. intelligence source privately expressed concern to the
Northeast Intelligence Network over al-Abssi and his training of operatives
"with [his] goals on striking targets inside the United States in particular,
along with the "reemergence of the al-Qaeda ideology and methodology in methods
that are more effective at evading detection and surveillance."
"There is also a rapid morphing of Palestinian and al Qaeda ideologies, with
the former group assuming the larger objectives of the latter group that seems
to be escaping many people," added this intelligence source.
Referencing a 90-minute interview with media sources that included The New
York Times, this intelligence source stressed that al Abssi has effectively
established a military training camp that "might be crude by some standards but
effective, attracting young Islamic militants from diverse places, and what it
lacks in sophistication, makes up for in motivation." As pointed out in the
media, al Abssi established a training facility in Lebanon, outside of the scope
of the Lebanese government, and is set on rising to the level of another Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi but with "America on his mind." According to this intelligence
source, "the fight is no longer the Palestinians versus the Israelis, but all of
Islam versus the West, especially the U.S."
To emphasize that broadened objective of al-Abssi in particular, this
intelligence source pointed to his comments that "America must be punished for
their presence and involvement in the Islamic world," adding that the end game
is the establishment of the creation of a global Islamic nation reaches far
beyond fighting US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Most people inside our
intelligence agencies aren’t getting that message. Listen to what al-Abssi is
saying: ‘the West is waging war against Islam’ and they [the Islamists] are
claiming that they have the right to kill Americans inside the U.S., not just
strike our military assets in Iraq and elsewhere."
Stated al-Abssi, "It is our right to hit them [Americans] in their homes as
they hit us in our homes. According to our intelligence insider, al-Abssi has
quickly moved up in the terrorist world to make this happen, and is "someone to
watch" as he cranks out trained terrorists destined for a variety of locations,
but most specifically, the U.S.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Residents greet Lebanese
army troops in Tripoli
20 May 2007
16:21:13 GMT
Source: Reuters
Residents greet Lebanese army troops after clashes with militants of
Fatah al-Islam group in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, May 20, 2007. Lebanese troops
battled al Qaeda-linked militants based in a ... Full article
Residents greet Lebanese
soldiers in Tripoli
20 May 2007
16:04:48 GMT
Source: Reuters
Residents greet Lebanese soldiers after clashes with militants of
Fatah al-Islam group in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, May 20, 2007. Lebanese troops
battled al Qaeda-linked militants based in a ... Full article
Timeline Lebanon Since Hariri's Death
May 20 (Reuters) - Lebanese troops battled al Qaeda-linked militants based in
a Palestinian refugee camp and the nearby city of Tripoli on Sunday and at least
38 people were killed in Lebanon's bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-90
civil war.
Here is a chronology of some of the main events in Lebanon since former Prime
Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed, along with 22 other people, on Feb. 14,
2005.
Feb. 16, 2005 - At least 150,000 Lebanese turn Hariri's
funeral into outpouring of anger against Syria.
Feb. 28, 2005 - Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami
resigns.
March 5, 2005 - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad tells his
parliament Syrian troops will start phased pullout from Lebanon.
April 26, 2005 - Last Syrian soldiers leave Lebanon.
June 2, 2005 - Samir Kassir, journalist opposed to Syria's
role in Lebanon, is killed in Beirut by bomb in his car.
June 16, 2005 - U.N. investigation into Hariri's killing
starts.
June 19, 2005 - Lebanese parliamentary elections end in
victory for anti-Syrian alliance led by Hariri's son Saad al-Hariri.
June 21, 2005 - Former Communist Party leader and critic of
Syria George Hawi is killed in Beirut by bomb in his car.
Oct. 20, 2005 - U.N. investigators say high-ranking Syrian
officials and their Lebanese allies were involved in Hariri's killing, in report
to U.N. Security Council. Syria denies it.
Dec. 12, 2005 - Gebran Tueni, anti-Syrian member of
parliament and Lebanese newspaper magnate, is killed by car bomb near Beirut.
July 12, 2006 - Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers in
cross-border raid, setting off 34-day war in which about 1,200 people in Lebanon
and 158 Israelis were killed.
Nov. 11, 2006 - Five pro-Syrian Shi'ite Muslim ministers
from Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement, resign after collapse of
all-party talks on giving their camp more say in government.
Nov. 21, 2006 - Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel is killed
by gunmen. U.N. Security Council approves plans for tribunal to try suspects in
assassination of Hariri and subsequent attacks. Dec. 1 - Hezbollah, Amal and
supporters of Christian leader Michel Aoun camp outside Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora's office in central Beirut in open-ended campaign to topple government.
Jan. 25, 2007 - Aid conference in Paris pledges more than
$7.6 billion to help with debt mountain and recover from war. Five people are
killed and 400 wounded in street clashes between pro- and anti-government
factions.
Feb. 13, 2007 - Three people are killed in two bomb blasts
near a Christian village northeast of Beirut. Lebanon says in March four Syrians
confessed to the bombings and were members of Fatah al-Islam, a small
Palestinian group linked to Syrian intelligence. The group deny involvement.
March 8/9, 2007 - Talks between Parliament Speaker Nabih
Berri, also leader of the opposition Amal movement, and majority leader Saad
al-Hariri to solve the four-month-old power struggle, end without agreement.
May 17, 2007 - The United States, France and Britain
circulate a draft U.N. resolution that would unilaterally establish a tribunal
to try suspects in the 2005 Hariri murder.
May 20, 2007 - Lebanon's army battle Fatah al-Islam
militants accused of robbing a bank a day earlier. The ensuing clashes kill
thirteen soldiers and 19 militants.
BBC Lebanon History Timeline [ LINK ]