Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Fatah al-Islam says leader ambushed in Syria

2008-12-11

Following days of speculation and conflicting reports, Lebanon-based Islamist group Fatah al-Islam has announced that its leader had been "captured or killed" by Syrian forces and named his successor, according to a U.S. intelligence monitoring service.
So is this the second or third time he's been killed?
The group said Shaker al-Abssi and two other members of its group were ambushed in Syria while trying to link up with other Islamic militants from Iraq and Afghanistan, SITE Intelligence Group Monitoring Service reported. The three were either captured or killed in the ensuing gunfight with members of the Syrian security forces, said the statement.
Did they bring the little woman around to identify the body? Again?
Abu Mohamad Awad had been named to succeed Abssi at the head of Fatah al-Islam, said the group.
They like me! They really like me!
SITE said the statement, the authenticity of which has still not been confirmed, was posted on an Islamic militant website on Monday.

Conflicting reports have been circulating in the Arab media for over a week concerning the wanted Abssi. Al-Liwaa daily reported earlier this month that he may have headed to Turkey to live with a Lebanese extremist known as Abu Bakr Aqida.The paper added that Abssi was last seen "last week in what is known as the Taware neighborhood of the Ain al-Helweh refugee camp in Sidon," Lebanon.

But An-Nahar newspaper said that another militant group, Osbat al-Ansar, had played a role alongside a leading Palestinian figure in hiding Abssi and his aides. It said Lebanese security forces have confirmed information that Abssi was still inside Ain al-Helweh, according to Lebanon's English newspaper The Daily Star.

Fatah al-Islam fought a fierce three-month battle with the Lebanese army last year in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, which left some 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers. In November, Fatah al-Islam reportedly claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in Damascus that left 17 dead in September.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Fatah al-Islamists claim Syria backed Lebanon attack

2008-11-17

A Lebanese newspaper on Saturday published statements purporting to be by members of Fatah al-Islam showing the radical group had links with Syria and that Damascus had backed an attack in Lebanon.

The publication of the "evidence" in al-Mustaqbal newspaper, owned by anti-Syrian majority parliamentary leader Saad Hariri, comes barely a week after Syrian television broadcast alleged "admissions" by Fatah al-Islam members that the group was financed by Hariri's Future Movement.

Al-Mustaqbal published undated and unsigned "copies" of statements by men held by Lebanese security services and prosecuting judges. One of them, Ahmad Merhi, said a Syrian general with whom he had "excellent" relations" told him in 2007 that there was coordination on information between Syria and Fatah al-Islam, which battled the Lebanese army in summer 2007.

The 15-week struggle in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared near Tripoli left 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers.

Merhi said General Jawdat al-Hassan, head of the fight against terrorism and fundamentalist groups within the Syrian army's information service, "asked me to help Shaker al-Abssi," the Fatah al-Islam leader who fled the camp. Thanks to his links with the general, he was able to allow "dozens of Fatah al-Islam fighters" to escape to Lebanon, he said.

One of the detainees said that he had met with Major General Assef Shawkat, head of military intelligence. There was no Syrian comment on the accusations.

Alleged members of the al-Qaeda linked Fatah al-Islam appeared to confess on Syrian TV earlier this month to carrying out the car bombing that killed 17 people, mainly civilians, in the Syrian capital in September. They claimed the group had received money from Saad Hariri's Future Movement, prompting Hariri to call last week for an Arab League investigation into the allegations.

The Future movement is part of the March 14 coalition that leads Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and is heavily backed by the United States.

Mehri was also quoted as saying that the "Syrians asked Shaker al-Abssi to carry out the double attack at Ain Alak in February 2007" which targeted two passenger buses in the north of Beirut, killing three people. The aim of the attack, committed the day before the second anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, "was to dissuade people from participating" in a ceremony of commemoration, Merhi added.

Damascus is accused by Lebanon's anti-Syrian majority of responsibility for the murder of Hariri, who had turned against Syria's domination of Lebanon. Syria denies any involvement in the killing.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria airs car bomb 'confessions'

2008-11-07

Syrian state TV has shown what it says are confessions by 11 militants behind the car bomb attack in Damascus in September which left 17 people dead.

Among the 10 men and one woman shown was Abdul Baqi al-Hussein, described as being responsible for security for Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni Islamist group. Fatah al-Islam fought the Lebanese army in a refugee camp in Tripoli last year.

The broadcast also showed a photo of a man said to have been the suicide bomber in the September attack. Mr Hussein said the bomber was a Saudi man called Abu Aisha.

In the 27 September attack, a car packed with about 200kg (440lbs) of explosives blew up near a security complex on the road to the international airport to the south of the capital.

The blast was the deadliest single attack in Damascus since 1986, when a bombing blamed on Iraqi agents left 60 people dead. It was also the first car bombing since a senior Hezbollah commander, Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in Damascus in February.

In his purported confession, Mr Hussein said he and 10 other suspects had planned to attack Syrian security offices and foreign diplomats.

One of the other men in the broadcast said the fugitive leader of Fatah al-Islam, Sheikh Shaker al-Abssi, had made his way into Syria from Lebanon, but that he had not been heard from since July. The woman shown among the group was identified as his daughter.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Wally: Tripoli Violence Serves Foreign Agendas

2008-07-27

Democratic Gathering leader Walid Jumblat urged feuding factions in Tripoli to halt acts of violence and resort to wisdom, saying factional violence "only serves foreign agendas."

Jumblat, in remarks published by the daily As Safir, said repercussions of such factional clashes would save no side, warning against re-launching fanatic movements similar to Shaker al-Abssi's Fatah al-Islam. He recalled that the Sunnis and Alawites have a joint history of struggle in defense of Lebanon and its Arab belonging.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Absi's widow claims that her husband is dead

2008-01-15

The widow of the fugitive leader of Fatah al-Islam terrorists claims that her husband Shaker al-Abssi is definitely dead and the voice on the last audio recording was not his , according to Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz. She said her husband always wanted his death to be a source of confusion for his enemies. She added that the corpse at the Tripoli hospital which is marked A16 is his body .

Okaz also quoted Palestinian sources saying Wafa, Absis daughter ( who is the widow of Abu el Laith who was killed on the Iraqi Syrian borders before Nahr el Bared battle) is also certain that the voice of the recording is not her fathers. Wafa is still living in the city of Sidon, south Lebanon awaiting emigration documentation.

The Lebanese public prosecutor has said DNA tests proved that Abssi, a Palestinian, was not among the fighters killed by Lebanese troops. Lebanese troops seized control of the camp on September 2. Abssis wife who insisted the body was that of her husband was accused of lying to deceive the army and allow Abssi to escape to Syria.

In a 58-minute audio recording posted on a Web site used by al Qaeda and other Islamist groups last Monday, the leader of the Fatah al-Islam group threatened attacks against the Lebanese army after it crushed its militants in battles at a refugee camp in northern Lebanon last year. "Nahr al-Bared camp will stand witness to your shame until the mujahideen tread your (bodies) with their shoes," a speaker who identified himself as Shaker al-Abssi said.

Absi, who served in the Syrian army was sentenced to death in absentia for the killing of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002. He was later jailed in Syria before setting up Fatah al-Islam in north Lebanon last year.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon arrests top member of Qaeda-inspired group

2008-01-11

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.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Al-Abssi warns Nahr al-Bahred festivities were only the beginning

2008-01-09

The leader of an Al-Qaeda-inspired militia warned that a deadly 15-week battle that it fought with Lebanese troops at a refugee camp in northern Lebanon last year was only the beginning. "Our message to the crusaders is to expect the worst. This battle was only the beginning and we will prevail," said the audio message attributed to Fatah al-Islam's Palestinian chief Shaker al-Abssi. The message also said that the group aimed to "hoist the banner of Islam in the Levant," singling out Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Terrorists were planning on claiming North Lebanon

2007-10-11

Details of the interrogation of detained Fatah al-Islam terrorists unveiled plans to seize control of a "big section" of northern Lebanon, to "destabilize" the country by shelling government institutions and business facilities, and to attack U.N. peacekeepers. Interrogation also showed that a large number of Fatah al-Islam militants were "true Jihadis," or holy warriors, who were under the impression that they were going to fight in Iraq.

It said most of the non-Lebanese militants had illegally crossed into Lebanon from Syria overland, adding that a few had entered the country via Beirut airport. The objective behind attacking U.N. peacekeepers was an effort to hinder implementation of U.N. resolutions, particularly 1701.

It is believed that following Arab, European and U.S. pressure on Syria to stop exporting jihad fighters to Iraqi, hundreds of holy warriors were sent to Lebanon under Shaker al-Abssi's Fatah al-Islam umbrella after his mysterious release from Damascus along with a few aids. Grilling of the detainees also showed that those who came illegally from Syria had infiltrated via a border area controlled by Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -General Command, which is backed and financed by Syria. An Nahar said Fatah al-Islam fighters had also received paramilitary training at PFLP-GC bases along the Lebanese border with Syria.

The circumstances of Abssi's release and the way the Syrian-backed Fatah-Intifada, or uprising, had facilitated Abssi's movements, in addition to a number of other factors, showed that a well-planned, premeditated plot could not have been made without the knowledge and blessing of Fatah-Intifada. Evidence that "direct contacts" between some Fatah al-Islam leaders and high-ranking Syrian Intelligence officers also supported accusations that Syria's security service used Fatah al-Islam for political and security purposes in Lebanon.

Cross-examination also showed that Fatah al-Islam was made up of "two main components":

1 - External, which includes Syrians and Palestinians living in Syria and were tasked with missions outside their bases like the Ein Alaq bombings.

2 - Internal, where militants were confined to the refugee camp and not allowed to leave.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon issues warrant for Fatah al-Islam's leader

2007-10-06

Lebanon said on Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for the leader of an Al-Qaeda inspired Islamist militia whose fighters were involved in a deadly 15-week battle with government troops. Judge Ghassan Oweydat said the warrant has been issued for Fatah al-Islam's Palestinian chief Shaker al-Abssi, whose fate remains unknown, and 36 other fugitive militants.

The judge is handling the case over the standoff between Fatah-al Islam and Lebanese troops that erupted in May at the impoverished Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in the north of the country. Almost 400 people were killed, including an estimated 222 militants and 168 soldiers, until the fighting ended after a final assault by the army on September 2. Oweydat suggested that Abssi, whose wife had at one stage identified his body in a morgue although DNA tests subsequently determined it was not him, was still alive and probably in Lebanon.

Also on Friday, general prosecutor Saeed Mirza charged 20 suspected Fatah al-Islam militants, 17 of them in absentia, with murder and terrorism, his office said. They included 16 Palestinians and four Russians, the statement said. A total of 331 members of Fatah al-Islam, including 150 in detention, have been charged since August in connection with the bloodshed.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Islamist uprising leader captured - report

2007-10-01

THE military commander of Fatah al-Islam, which led a 15-week uprising against the Lebanese army this summer, has been captured in a northern refugee camp, a camp official said today. "Nasser Ismail was captured by a (Palestinian) security force in the camp of Beddawi," Abu Ali Fares, a spokesman for Palestinian factions in the refugee camp said.

"The force raided the house of a relative of Nasser Ismail and found him hiding in the attic with another person," Mr Fares said. "He was taken aboard a Red Crescent ambulance during the night of Sunday to Monday. He was handed over to the (Lebanese) army intelligence services."

Beddawi camp is where many of the civilians driven from their homes in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp further north by the fighting between Fatah al-Islam and the army were given emergency shelter. Ismail's wife remains in Beddawi, where, as in Lebanon's other camps, security is left to the Palestinian factions by longstanding convention, Mr Fares said.

Khalil Dib, an official of the Palestinian faction Fatah al-Intifada, said that Ismail told him while in the custody of the Palestinian forces that he had been in Nahr al-Bared until Saturday before heading to Beddawi. Since Nahr al-Bared fell on September 2, the Lebanese army has been combing the whole area for fugitive militants, including Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi. Dib said that according to Ismail, "Shaker al-Abssi left Nahr al-Bared one month before the end of the battle" on September 2.

More than 400 people died in the fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam, including at least 222 Islamists. One more soldier died last Friday, raising the army's losses to 168.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon indicts 11 terrorists from Fatah al-Islam

2007-09-26

Lebanese state prosecutor charged eleven members suspected of belonging to the Fatah al-Islam militia with murder and terrorism. Saeed Mirza said that the defendants, seven of them in preventive detention, were charged in connection with the murder of several Lebanese army soldiers who were killed during a 15-week standoff with the Al-Qaida-inspired militants that ended on September 2. More than 400 people died in the battles at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, in northern Lebanon, including 167 soldiers.

A total 297 members of Fatah al-Islam have been charged in connection with the fighting since August. The suspects charged on Monday are accused of terrorist acts, threatening the state as well as its civil and military institutions, and firing on soldiers, civilians and interior ministry forces, according to the charge sheet.

Mirza said he was seeking arrest warrants for the 11 men who are of various Arab nationalities. The prosecutor in August filed charges against 227 militants, including the head of Fatah al-Islam Shaker al-Abssi, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Charges were also filed last week against 59 others.

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Good morning

2007-09-13

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