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Recent Appearances... Rantburg
Abu Hureira Shehab al-Qaddour Fatah al-Islam Syria-Lebanon-Iran Lebanese Deceased 20070806 Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Qaeda hard boy criticizes Hezbollah for failing to attack Israel
2009-01-27
(AKI) - An Al-Qaeda operative and former Guantanamo detainee has attacked the Lebanese Shia movement , Hezbollah, for failing to defend Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. In a video released on the internet, Abu Hureira Qasim al-Rimi directed his attack against Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. "I would like to send a message to Hassan Nasrallah - Answer me, why have you shed all these tears for Gaza and for the people of Gaza? Didn't you say that you had warehouses full of 20,000 missiles that could reach Tel-Aviv?" said Abu Hureira Qasim al-Rimi in the 19-minute video message.

Al-Rimi then proceeded to attack Hezbollah for failing to help Gazans during the recent three-week long Israeli offensive that began on 27 December. More than 1,330 Palestinians were killed and another 5,000 were injured during Operation Cast Lead. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the conflict.
Proving that verbal ferocity doesn't make up for being undisciplined dishpits and piss-poor shots...
"Didn't our brothers in Gaza deserve you launching, in their defence, one thousand, two thousand or three thousand rockets instead of these tears? " he said. "Is Lebanese land more valuable than the blood of the Palestinians? What is the difference between you and (Egyptian president) Hosni Mubarak who protects the Jews?," said al-Rimi. "Our community must know the truth about these facts and understand who is 'selling' our cause."

In the video, al-Rimi appears next to the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Abu Basir al-Naser al-Wahshi. The video, entitled "From here we begin and we will meet each other at the al-Aqsa mosque," refers to Islam's third holiest site, located in Jerusalem.
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Terror Networks
Released detainees return to terror trail
2009-01-24
TWO men released from the war on terror prison at Guantanamo Bay have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist website, the SITE monitoring service has reported.
One of the two former inmates, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shihri, or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official said.

Three other men appear in the video, including Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, identified as an al-Qaeda field commander. SITE later said he was prisoner No 333.

A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, declined to confirm the SITE information.

"We remain concerned about ex-Guantanamo detainees who have reaffiliated with terrorist organisations after their departure," said Gordon.

"We will continue to work with the international community to mitigate the threat they pose," he said.

On the video, al-Shihri is seen sitting with three other men before a flag of the Islamic State of Iraq, the front for al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for," al-Shihri was quoted as saying.
Al-Shiri was transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia in 2007, the US counter-terrorism official said.

The other men in the video are identified as Commander Abu Baseer al-Wahayshi and Abu Hureira Qasm al-Rimi (also known as Abu Hureira al-Sana'ani).

The US Defence Department has said as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees - about 11 per cent of 520 detainees transferred from the detention centre and released - are believed to have returned to the fight.

The latest case highlights the risk the new US administration faces as it moves to empty Guantanamo of its remaining 245 prisoners and close the controversial detention camp within a year.
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Home Front: WoT
Two ex-Gitmo inmates appear in Al-Qaeda video
2009-01-25
Sure is a good thing that we're closing Gitmo, huh ...
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two men released from the US "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist website, the SITE monitoring service reported.

One of the two former inmates, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP.
Did his time in stir and now is a made man ...
Three other men appear in the video, including Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi, identified as an Al-Qaeda field commander. SITE later said he was prisoner No. 333.

A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, on Saturday declined to confirm the SITE information. "We remain concerned about ex-Guantanamo detainees who have re-affiliated with terrorist organizations after their departure," said Gordon. "We will continue to work with the international community to mitigate the threat they pose," he said.

On the video, al-Shihri is seen sitting with three other men before a flag of the Islamic State of Iraq, the front for Al-Qaeda in Iraq. "By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for," al-Shihri was quoted as saying.

Al-Shiri was transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia in 2007, the US counter-terrorism official said.

The other men in the video are identified as Commander Abu Baseer al-Wahayshi and Abu Hureira Qasm al-Rimi (also known as Abu Hureira al-Sana'ani).

The Defense Department has said as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees -- about 11 percent of 520 detainees transferred from the detention center and released -- are believed to have returned to the fight. The latest case highlights the risk the new US administration faces as it moves to empty Guantanamo of its remaining 245 prisoners and close the controversial detention camp within a year.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian colonel testifies to involvement in destabilization of Lebanon
2008-10-25
Al Mustaqbal daily said the alleged Syrian colonel Firas Ghannam, under arrest before the Lebanese Military Tribunal, is charged with attempting terrorism in Lebanon. He revealed the involvement of Syrian Intelligence in the destabilization of Lebanon after they withdrew from the country in 2005.

The daily pointed out that Ghanam said, while being examined, that the Syrian officer Georges Salloum ordered him to detonate bombs in the Martyrs’ Square on the eve of the first commemoration of former Premier Rafic Hariri’s assassination on February 14, 2006. He added that he didn’t want to execute the order but only agreed in order to move out from Syria through Lebanon with the Tunisian citizen Mounir Hilal. They were both arrested 3 days prior to the commemoration on the Lebanese-Syrian borders in Bekaa with forged identity card and a hand grenade. The report said Ghannam also testified to "relations" he had with Shehab Qaddour, better known by the code name of Abu Hureira, a ranking official of the Fatah al-Islam terrorist group who was killed in a clash with security forces in the northern city of Tripoli more than a year ago.

The military tribunal, chaired by Brig. Gen. Nizar Khalil, concluded its interrogations of Ghannam and Hilal on Friday. It is scheduled to convene on Feb. 20 to debrief witness Omar .
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mass funeral for nearly 98 Islamists killed in Lebanon clashes
2007-10-05
Nearly 98 Fatah al-Islam militants killed during battles with the Lebanese army since May were buried Thursday in a mass grave in the northern city of Tripoli. Wrapped in white shrouds and placed in numbered wooden coffins the bodies of the 98 slain militants, most of them from Gulf Arab countries, were buried in four mass graves in the Ghorabaa cemetary in the Bab al Tabaneh neighbourhood of Tripoli. A Sunni Muslim sheikh performed the prayer before the burial ceremony.

A Lebanese security source said the countries to which the militants belonged refused to receive their bodies, 'so we decided to bury them in this grave.' The buried militants included Fatah al-Islam number two, Shebab Kaddour, a Lebanese national also known as Abu Hureira, who was killed during a clash in Tripoli in August.

According to Lebanese security sources, some 222 militants were killed and more than 100 others were arrested during the clashes that took place inside the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. 168 Lebanese soldiers were also killed in the clashes.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Evacuated families of terrorists unwelcome at Ein el-Hellhole
2007-08-31
Ein El-Hilweh Refugee Camp, Lebanon - For three months, Abeer Qandaqli and her sister-in-law, Farida al-Shaabi, moved from house to house amid the rubble of a besieged Palestinian refugee camp, surviving on canned food, as their husbands - both Islamic militants - waged a battle against the Lebanese army.
To what end, other than the detriment of their families and to prove their own mortality?
The two women, both in their late 20s, were among 25 wives of Fatah Islam fighters evacuated with their 38 children from the besieged Nahr el-Bared camp a week ago. Now, the two women are living in this southern Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp,
... no haven of normality itself...
where their stories, recounted by their families, shed a bit of light on the confusion surrounding the militant group since the siege began. The two women did not talk to reporters themselves.
Too Islamic for that.
One of the women, Al-Shaabi, is the Palestinian wife of Shehab al-Qaddour, better known as Fatah Islam's deputy leader Abu Hureira, who was nailed killed earlier this month. It's not clear if Mohammed al-Shaabi, Qandaqli's husband and Farida al-Shaabi's brother, is still alive.
I, personally, hope neither is dead, but both have been hideously disfigured, crippled to the point where they can't change their own colostomy bags.
Qandaqli's mother, Amal Sweidi, said her daughter left her home at Ein el-Hilweh camp for the bright lights of Nahr el-Bared two months before the fighting erupted there on May 20. She had no idea her husband was a fighter with the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah al-Islam, but she would have gone even if she had known, Sweidi said. "Wouldn't you follow your husband wherever he goes?" asked Sweidi, 51.
Now that you bring it up, if my wife bought a boom belt, I'd settle for a new shirt and a bus ticket.
During a brief truce three days after the war began, designed to allow civilians flee, Qandaqli sent her two sons, ages 8 and 10, out of the camp. Farida al-Shaabi also sent four of her children out, but kept her 10-month-old son with her, said her sister, Fadia al-Shaabi, speaking at her home here. Two weeks after the fighting started, the two women were separated from their husbands and have not seen them since, their families said.
"I'm so distraught! Who will massage my darling's stumps?"
The fighting between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army at Nahr el-Bared has killed about 148 soldiers and an unknown number of militants, who have vowed to fight until their deaths.
Sounds good. They should stick to that objective.
About a dozen of the other Fatah al-Islam wives who were evacuated last week, and have other various Arab nationalities, are staying at a mosque in Sidon, near Ein el-Hilweh, guarded by Lebanese security dressed in civilian clothes.
Describing them as "in mufti" sounds kinda redundant, since the broads are holed up in a mosque.
The rest of the evacuated women and children are in Beddawi, another northern Palestinian refugee camp near Nahr el-Bared. All have been interrogated by Lebanese security, but security officials said the women have refused to talk.
"I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece, coppers! Nuttin'!"
"They're not saying a word, except that they were in one bomb shelter and their husbands in others," said one official. "They will probably stay in Lebanon until the military operation is over, or until we can deport them to their respective countries."
I'd just go ahead and deport them. They'll just marry other religious nitwitz.
Some in Palestinian camps are unhappy with the presence of the newly evacuated Fatah al-Islam wives. "We prefer they stay away from our camp," said Raed Shbaitah, a senior official of the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, referring to the families. "We have enough problems of our own."
Raed sounds like he's got a head on his shoulders. Of course, if the Islamists were to take over he probably wouldn't.
Abu Hureira, the deputy militant leader, who is Lebanese, was on the run from Lebanese law when he fled to Ein el-Hilweh more than 10 years ago and later married al-Shaabi. The camp, the largest of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, has become a haven for extremists and criminals because of its lawlessness. Under a 1969 Arab League agreement, the camps are off-limits to Lebanese security.
And the Paleostinians certainly aren't big on concepts like "law" and "order." They're Zionist plots.
Abu Hureira started out roaming the camp's streets selling Arabic coffee or bread on a mobile cart. In 2000, he joined Usbat al-Ansar, an extremist Palestinian group based at Ein el-Hilweh and believed to have strong links with Fatah al-Islam. He left for Nahr el-Bared with his brother-in-law and their families a few months before the fighting started there.
"We're goin' to Nahr al-Bared, there to make our fortunes!"
"G'bye! Don't come back!"
Mohammed al-Shaabi had worked in a co-op, distributing food, shampoo and detergent to Ein el-Hilweh's grocery stores when he met his wife, Qandaqli. About three years ago, he also joined Asbat al-Ansar.
Maybe it was her perfume? After only three months he really shoulda been interested in other things.
Many of the Fatah Islam guerrillas fighting in Nahr el-Bared had previously been with Usbat al-Ansar - an indication the two may be basically the same, merely operating under different names, or share similar ideologies and goals.
Whoa! Picked right up on that, didn't you? When I was a child we got tired of eating hot dogs, so Mom decided to feed us tube steaks. When we got tired that, we got franks. And when that wore off, we got wieners.
Al-Shaabi's mother-in-law, Sweidi, insisted he was not affiliated with Fatah al-Islam when he first left Ein el-Hilweh. "Nobody had heard of Fatah al-Islam," she said. And Sweidi said she and her daughter were not happy when her son-in-law joined Usbat al-Ansar. She called her son-in-law a "good man" but blamed Fatah Islam for her daughter's suffering. Both Qandaqli and Farida al-Shaabi lost so much weight while stuck in Nahr el-Bared that they need medical treatment, she said. "May God's curse fall on those who caused all the suffering," said Sweidi, referring to Fatah al-Islam.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Families of terrorists evacuated from Lebanon camp
2007-08-25
The families of the Fatah al-Islam terrorist militia battling Lebanese troops for the past three months, began leaving a battered Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday. "The evacuation has begun," the source said. "We announced a ceasefire to ensure the evacuation within a specific time frame."

Witnesses said the Lebanese army told journalists to stay away from the area where the civilians -- 22 women and 41 children -- were to leave the camp. The civilians are said to include the wife of Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi and the widow and child of his number two, Abu Hureira, who was killed in recent weeks.

He added that the army was processing the group before taking them out of the camp. A military source said the group would likely be questioned by the army command and any foreigners among them would then be handed over to their respective embassies. Anyone needing emergency medical assistance, particularly the children, will be taken to hospital, the head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Contact with north Lebanon camp militants lost
2007-08-23
A Palestinian cleric trying to negotiate a ceasefire to allow the families of Islamist militants to leave a besieged camp in northern Lebanon said on Wednesday phone contact with the Fatah al-Islam extremists had been lost. "We were awaiting a response about the number of people to be evacuated and the time, in order to secure a corridor," Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for the Ulemas or clerics, told reporters. "We were surprised because they are no longer answering their phone."

Lebanese army helicopters launched six raids on Fatah al-Islam positions inside the Nahr al-Bared camp overnight. Intermittent artillery and tank fire continued to target militants inside the camp on Wednesday. Hajj had said on Tuesday that a representative of Fatah al-Islam contacted the clerics overnight on Monday, seeking a way out for the women and children who are said to number less than 100. The army said it had agreed and was ready for a truce that would allow the families safe passage out of the devastated Palestinian refugee camp. "We gave our agreement on Tuesday but have heard nothing since," an army spokesman said.

He also said the army had detained a Fatah al-Islam fighter three kilometres (two miles) north of Nahr al-Bared on Wednesday. The man, a Palestinian, was captured by an army patrol on the coast after he had fled the camp by sea, the spokesman said.

According to a source close to the negotiations, the clerics have drawn up a list of 50 women and 20 children, including the wife of Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker al-Abssi and the widow of his number two, Abu Hureira, who was killed at the beginning of August. Previous mediation attempts over the past three months by the Palestinian clerics aimed at securing the militants' surrender or the safe conduct of their families have failed.

On July 11 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tried in vain to evacuate 45 women and 20 children, all related to Islamist fighters inside Nahr al-Bared. The remaining militants, thought to number about 70, have been holed up inside the camp since May 20. At least 200 people, including 141 soldiers, have been killed in the deadliest internal unrest in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Update
According to Mohammed Hajj, their contact is Abi Salim Taha. Taha's cellular phone was not operational but service has since been resumed and he should now be in a position to receive and make calls. Hajj also stated that he sensed more flexibility on the issue of the surrender of the fighters of Fatah al Islam, when he last talked to Taha. According to army sources the logistics for evacuating the women and children have been completed. Women army soldiers will handle the evacuation with the help of the Red Cross.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Six militants, two troops killed in Lebanon camp
2007-08-10
Two Lebanese soldiers and six al Qaeda-inspired militants were killed on Wednesday in pitched battles at a Palestinian refugee camp, taking the death toll from nearly 12 weeks of fighting to 267. Security sources said the men were killed in overnight and morning clashes at Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon during which artillery, rockets, grenades and machine guns were used. Troops made some advances inside, seizing a number of buildings, arms and ammunition, they said.

The military control a large part of the camp and its vicinity, home to 31,000 refugees before the fighting, but Fatah al-Islam militants have been putting up fierce resistance. The army has now lost 136 soldiers since the battle erupted on May 20. More than 90 militants and 41 civilians have also been killed in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Lebanese authorities said this week that a senior Fatah al-Islam military commander, Shihab Qaddora, also know as Abu Hureira, was killed late last month in a clash with security forces in the nearby city of Tripoli. There was no confirmation of when or how Qaddora, 35, a well-known Lebanese militant who had spent more than six years in a Syrian prison, managed to sneak out of the camp but he was at one stage leading the battles at Nahr al-Bared.

Some local media reported he had fled the besieged camp by swimming for five hours. They said Qaddora was contacting sleeping Fatah al-Islam cells in Tripoli to prepare for attacks against the security sources.

Fatah al-Islam, which split from a Syrian-backed Palestinian faction last year, has Lebanese, Palestinians and other Arabs in its ranks, including some who have fought in Iraq. It says it supports al Qaeda's ideas, but has no direct links with it. The conflict has further undermined stability in Lebanon, already crippled by a prolonged political crisis and shaken by bombings that have killed six U.N. peacekeepers and two anti-Syrian lawmakers in the past eight months. The assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005 marked an end to the relative stability Lebanon had experienced since it emerged from the civil war.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Abu Hureira, Fatah al-Islam's No. 2 killed by Lebanon police
2007-08-08
More detail on yesterday's story...
Police have killed Fatah al-Islam's No. 2 man, the deputy commander of the al-Qaida inspired militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, the government said Monday. Abu Hureira was killed a few days ago by police in the northern port city of Tripoli, near the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where Fatah al-Islam militants have been fighting Lebanese soldiers for more than two months, said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi.
Being in Tripoli isn't the same thing as being surrounded in Nahr al-Bared...
"Cabinet was informed by Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa that Lebanese security forces have killed the Fatah al-Islam's No. 2 in the Abu Samra neighborhood" in Tripoli, Aridi told reporters following a Cabinet meeting. A senior police official said Abu Hureira was one of two men on a motorcycle who opened fire on a police checkpoint in Abu Samra. Police fired back, killing one and wounding the other.
The old Cycle of Violence™ trick, eh? That worked well.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements, said the wounded man disclosed during interrogation that his companion was Abu Hureira. He said DNA tests also indicated that Abu Hureira, and his parents provided a positive identification.
"Yep. That's Sonny. I'd recognize that turban anywhere!"
Police had been waiting for results of the genetic tests to announce the death. The whereabouts of Abu Hureira, a Lebanese whose real name is Shehab al-Qaddour, had been unknown since fighting at the Nahr el-Bared camp erupted on May 20. Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker Youssef Absi's whereabouts are still unknown. The police official said it was not clear how or when Abu Hureira had fled Nahr el-Bared or how long he had been in Tripoli.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanese army kills Fatah Islam deputy commander
2007-08-07
Lebanese authorities announced Monday that the deputy commander of al-Qaida-inspired militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon has been killed.

Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said Abu Hureira, a Lebanese whose real name is Shehab al-Qaddour, was killed few days ago by police in the northern port city of Tripoli, near the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared where Fatah Islam militants have been fighting Lebanese soldiers for more than two months. "Cabinet was informed by Interior Minister Hassan Sabei that Lebanese security forces have killed the Fatah Islam's No. 2 in the Abu Samra neighborhood" in Tripoli, Aridi told reporters following a Cabinet meeting Monday night.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon army urges Islamist extremists to surrender
2007-07-21
The army used loudspeakers Friday to urge Islamic extremists inside a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon to surrender, as sporadic fighting continued, witnesses and security officials said. The army has also urged the militants to release all the civilians , holding them completely responsible for their safety. The loudspeakers, which were set up on the roofs of some of the camp's collapsed buildings, were the latest military tactic to pressure Fatah al- Islam militants holed up inside the Nahr el-Bared camp to turn themselves in. "We are getting closer and closer. You must surrender and you will have a fair trial," the military broadcast repeatedly overnight Thursday and Friday morning, according to the witnesses and security officials.

The officials, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give press statements, said no members of Fatah al- Islam had responded to the calls.

The army has also set up security cameras to monitor the fighters' movements.

Sporadic fighting continued Friday as the army resumed shelling the remaining positions of the al-Qaida-inspired militants.

Fatah al- Islam militants retaliated by firing four Katyusha rockets that landed in a village a few miles away from the camp, but there was no immediate word on casualties, according to the state-run National News Agency.

The militants have recently been firing the rockets on almost daily basis in what appears to be a new tactic to ease the army's pressure. A Lebanese teenager was killed and a young girl was injured Wednesday in rocket attacks on villages near the camp.

A Fatah al- Islam militant had warned they would send suicide bombers against the army if it continued its offensive against the besieged Nahr el-Bared camp located on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli.

"We have hundreds of martyrdom seekers (suicide bombers) who were readied to go to Palestine but will instead blow themselves up against the Lebanese army if the battles continue," spokesman Abu Salim Taha warned in an interview published Thursday in a local newspaper.

Taha refused to say whether Fatah al- Islam leader Shaker al-Absi or his deputy, Abu Hureira, a Lebanese whose real name is Shehab al-Qaddour, had been killed in the fighting. He put the number of Fatah al- Islam dead at 50.

The whereabouts of Absi and Abu Hureira have been unknown since fighting began May 20.

The military has said 111 soldiers have been killed since fighting broke out in the camp two months ago.

The conflict with Fatah al- Islam militants is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war. At least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians have been killed in the fighting, according to the Lebanese government and U.N. relief officials.

Absi may be dead
In an interview on Friday with Arabiyeh TV a Palestinian spokesman said Shaker al-Absi, the leader of Fatah- al-Islam may be dead because he was shot in his kidneys and liver. This confirms some rumors that circulated recently in Lebanon.

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