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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Fatah al-Islam spokesman identifies twin-bus bomb murderers
2007-11-04
Fatah al-Islam's spokesman Abu Salim Taha named the perpetrators of the Feb. 13 twin bus bombings in Ain Alaq north of Beirut that left three people killed and 23 others wounded.

Abu Taha identified the executors as Abu Omar al-Hijji, a Syrian who was killed at the beginning of the Nahr al-Bared fighting, and Mustafa Siyor, also a Syrian who is in police custody.

The daily As Safir, which carried the report, said the Lebanese army's intelligence bureau was capable of "drawing a complete pyramid" of the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah al-Islam terrorist group. Citing unnamed sources, the paper said Abu Taha presented "all the facts" related to bank robberies designed for financing his group. After 50 days of investigation, Abu Taha also named Fatah al-Islam's financial coordinator as Abu Ritaj, possibly a Saudi, whose lineage goes back to al-Qaida.

Taha presented a list of Fatah al-Islam names who are largely Syrian. The report said 70 Fatah al-Islam members are Syrian, 50 Saudis, another 50 of various Arab nationalities, in addition to about 20 Palestinians, 10 Jordanians and others from Afghan, Chechnya and Serbia.

Bomb blasts tore through two buses in Lebanon on February 13, 2007, killing three people and injuring 23 in the Metn region east of Beirut, as the deeply divided nation prepared to commemorate Hariri's murder two years ago. The blasts, which occurred minutes apart, tore through two buses traveling on a busy commuter road. A higher death toll was averted because passengers from the second bus had rushed out to help the victims of the first explosion.

On March 14, 2007, four Syrians held by the Lebanese authorities confessed to bombing the two buses. Security officials said that the ring leader of the plot was a Syrian, Mustafa Sayour, who had confessed to planting the bombs.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Civilians help Lebanon security in arresting Islamist militant
2007-09-18
The civilians in the village of Ain Burg in al-Minya area , north Lebanon helped the Lebanese security forces in arresting a fugitive Islamist militant The arrested militant belongs to Fatah al-Islam terrorist organization . His name is Abdul Aziz Al-Masri, a Syrian citizen. He was arrested near the coastal area of the village . In his possession he had 3 cans of Tuna and vitamin pills.

According to the army intelligence Masri remained inside the camp on September 2 when all the militants escaped . He survived on food leftovers. He tried to escape yesterday but was caught. This is the third Syrian citizen connected with Fatah al-Islam militants arrested since Saturday by the Lebanese authorities. The other 2 Syrian citizens arrested on Saturday are :
1- Mohamed Saleh Zawawi who used the title of Abu Salim Taha, Spokesman of Fatah al-Islam.

2- Omar Mohammad Othman , whose title is Abu Al-Hareth, a key member of Fatah al-Islam leadership council which is called 'the Legitimate body '. The ' legitimate body' elected the fugitive Shaker al- Absi as the leader of Fatah al- Islam.
Lebanon's majority alliance has accused Syria of creating, training, arming and funding Fatah al-Islam. Shaker al-Absi, like Zawawi and al-Masri came to Lebanon from Syria. Syria has denied any connections with Fatah al-Islam.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon releases picture of Fatah al-Islam spokesman
2007-09-17
Yesterday the Lebanese army and the Lebanese security forces were able to arrest the fugitive spokesman of Fatah al-Islam , a terrorist organization that was based in the Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugee camp. The army today released his picture and some details about him.

As a spokesman and media coordinator for Fatah al-Islam he used the name of Abu Salim Taha. His real name is Mohamed Saleh Zawawi a Syrian citizen of Palestinian origin who came to Lebanon from the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus , Syria.

According to army sources the arrest of Zawawi could lead to the arrest of Shaker al Absi , the leader of Fatah al Islam who was able to escape. The majority alliance has accused Syria of creating, training and funding Fatah al-Islam. Shaker al-Absi , like Zawawi is also of Palestinian origin and like Zawawi he too came to Lebanon from Syria. Syria has denied any connections with Fatah al-Islam .

Update : 8 :00 PM Beirut time
This is how the army was able to find and arrest Zawawi. According to An Nahar newspaper the army received intelligence reports indicating that Fatah al-Islam fugitives were hiding at a deserted Palestinian base in the Tubul mountain overlooking the city of Tripoli. The army launched a lightning attack at dawn ( about 4 : AM ) yesterday and was able to find and arrest Zawawi along with 3 other key members of Fatah al Islam :
One Syrian - Omar Mohammad Othman , his title is Abu Al-Hareth
One Saudi - Salem Amer Salman , his title is Abu Said
One Tunisian
The Syrian and the Saudi are key members of Fatah al-Islam leadership council which is called 'the Legitimate body '. The ' legitimate body' elected Absi as the leader of Fatah al- Islam. The four fugitives were taken to Army Intelligence Center where they were roundly thumped initially interrogated. The interrogation revealed that Shaker al-Absi is still hiding in north Lebanon.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Controversy in Lebanon shrouds the DNA test result of Absi
2007-09-07
The first round of DNA tests conducted on Fatah al-Islam's terrorist mastermind Shaker Absi did not match him, media reports said. The report on OTV came as a surprise to the Palestinian Scholars Association (PSA).
Used a double, did he?
Sheik Ali Youssef, a PSA member, on Thursday said the Association did not yet receive any official DNA outcome. "I was shocked at the news that preceded the final results," Youssef told LBC's Naharkom Saeed talk show.

Absi's wife on Monday identified his corpse at the public hospital in the northern town of Tripoli.
Who identified her?
"I'd know those ankles anywhere!"
However, the daily An Nahar on Thursday, citing judicial sources, said state Prosecutor Saeed Mirza has not yet received the final DNA results that would determine the fatality's identity. The sources said further forensic DNA testing would be conducted before a definite answer is given.

An Nahar also said Thursday that the death of Fatah al-Islam's spokesman Abu Salim Taha has not been confirmed. Youssef backed up An Nahar's report, saying Abu Taha's fate remains unknown after his wife, who went to a Tripoli morgue to identify him, said that the corpse was not that of her husband.

Absi's wife identified the corpse as that of her husband Shaker Absi, hospital manager Nasser Adra told reporters on Monday. He did not disclose further details. Absi was killed along with 31 fellow terrorists in a major showdown with the Lebanese Army that ended the Nahr al-Bared battle which broke out on May 20.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon hunts down fugitives after final assault on camp
2007-09-04
NAHR Al BARED, Lebanon - Lebanese soldiers hunted down fugitive militants on Monday after crushing an Islamist group in fighting that ended a deadly 15-week standoff at a battered Palestinian refugee camp. As troops swept the devastated shantytown in northern Lebanon for explosives and hunted for any surviving members of Fatah Al Islam, the bodies of two of the Sunni extremist group’s leaders were identified, an army spokesman said.

‘We have identified the bodies of Fatah Al Islam chief Shaker Al Abssi and his spokesman Abu Salim Taha,’ the spokesman told AFP. ‘We also believe that we have the body of Nasser Ismail, another of the top commanders.’ He said soldiers had also captured four militants in the camp on Monday, including one hiding in an attic.

An army officer here added that four Islamists hiding in the sewers were killed after they fired at an army patrol in the camp, wounding two soldiers. Gunshots could still be heard inside the camp, and an army official there said troops were trying to kill all smoke out remaining militants.

Bulldozers cleared sandbags from around Nahr Al Bared, which remained off-limits to civilians on Monday, while troops in armoured carriers cordoned off an area south of the camp and traffic on the main coastal highway to neighbouring Syria was diverted. Another military source said soldiers found weapons and rockets in underground shelters where the militants, who were said to take their inspiration from Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, had been holed up.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Al-Absi, leader of Fatah al-Islam is dead
2007-09-03
Shaker Youssef Al-Absi , the fugitive leader of the Fatah al-Islam militants was killed today as he was trying to flee the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. This information was confirmed by a hospital in Tripoli and by Lebanese army sources.

According to army sources, Al-Absi was killed in the morning and his body was found near the eastern section of the camp. The army brought in some Fatah al-Islam detainees to view the body and they all confirmed that it was that of Al- Absi. Later in the day, the army performed DNA tests which provided the final proof of his death.

There were many conflicting reports today about the whereabouts of Al-Absi. Late afternoon it was reported that that the army has captured Al-Absi. Early afternoon it was reported that he was able to escape. Similarly it was reported earlier that Abu Salim Taha, the spokesman of Fatah al Islam has surrendered, but the latest report confirmed that he died today after he was fatally wounded while he was trying to escape.
The two aren't mutually exclusive, of course...
The army victory today brings to an end the Fatah al-Islam organization, and the life of of its leader Shaker Youssef Al-Absi.

Background Information on Al-Absi
Al-Absi is high on Jordan's most-wanted terror list. A military court sentenced him to death in absentia in July 2004, along with al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for their roles in the 2002 slaying of a U.S. diplomat in Amman. Al-Zarqawi died in a U.S. airstrike a year ago.

Jordanian prosecutors say al-Absi, who is also known as Abu Youssef, sent money raised by al-Zarqawi through intermediaries to the Jordanian cell that killed the American diplomat, Laurence Foley. Al-Absi also arranged to train militants in Syria on weapons and explosives, according to Jordanian military court documents.

Al-Absi was also implicated in other planned terror plots in Jordan. Six months ago, Jordanian police engaged in a gun battle with two militants in the northern city of Irbid, killing one and arresting another. The arrested militant later confessed that al-Absi had sent the pair to carry out terror attacks in Jordan.

Unlike traditional Palestinian militants like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, al-Absi has for years been interwoven with the al-Qaida-linked militant underground, reportedly visiting Iraq and Afghanistan and associating with al-Zarqawi, one of al-Qaida's most brutal leaders. Al-Absi is wanted in three Mideast countries - Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
He has the death sentence on twelve systems...
He reportedly came to Lebanon last year from Syria, where he spent a number of years, some of them in prison. In the Nahr el-Bared camp - safe from Lebanese authorities who cannot enter Palestinian refugee camps under a 40-year-old agreement - he slowly built up his organization.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mediators negotiating evacuation of wounded from Lebanon camp
2007-08-28
Palestinian clerics continued negotiating on Monday on the possible evacuation of wounded militants from a camp besieged by the army in northern Lebanon since May 20, a mediator said. "Contacts continue with the Lebanese army and (Fatah al-Islam spokesman) Abu Salim Taha," Sheikh Mohamad Hajj, spokesman for the League of Palestine Clerics, told reporters. "We have still not reached an agreement on how" the wounded extremists would be evacuated from the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, Hajj said, without elaborating.

An army spokesman confirmed that mediation was taking place, without wishing to give more details on the number of wounded militants due to be evacuated. The clerics had already succeeded in arranging for the wives and children -- 63 people -- of the remaining Fatah al-Islam militants to be evacuated last Friday.

Hajj said the Lebanese as well as Palestinian civilians with Lebanese travel documents who were evacuated on Friday had joined their families in the refugee camps of Ain al-Helweh in the south and Baddawi, near Nahr al-Bared. He said Syrian or Palestinian evacuees with Syrian travel documents have already left for neighboring Syria, including the family of Shaker al Absi, leader of the militants A small number of foreign evacuees with no travel documents were in army custody, Palestinian sources said. An army spokesman said that information from those evacuated could help the military in its final showdown with the militants.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mahmoud sings
2007-08-26
The Lebanese army has been able to obtain valuable information on the leadership of Fatah al Islam and the whereabouts of their leader Shaker al Absi, according to military sources. The army arrested last Tuesday Mamoud al Saadi, a key member of Fatah al Islam , as he was trying to flee the Nahr el Bared refugee camp. The army learned as a result of the interrogation of Saadi that Shahine Shahine who has assumed the leadership of the terrorist group when Absi was wounded , was killed recently in one of the battles. Absi according to Saadi has since assumed the leadership and was the one responsible for firing the Katyusha rockets with the help of Abu Salim Taha.

Taha was the main contact for the mediators who brokered the deal between the army and the terrorists to evacuate the civilians. According to Saadi two of the buildings of the Nahr el Bared camp have been booby trapped by Fatah al Islam and are set to explode as soon as the army approaches them.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Deal reached to allow families of militants to leave camp
2007-08-25
A deal was reached with Islamic extremists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon to allow their families to leave the besieged area, a Muslim clergyman and a senior military official said Friday.
Bad translation of the source documents. The actual agreement was for "a battalion of children, to be accompanied by an appropriate number of persons wearing burkas."
Sheik Mohammed al-Haj of the Paleo Scholars' Association said he was contacted Friday by Fatah al Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha, requesting his mediation with the Lebanese army command for a truce to allow the remaining civilians — most of them relatives of the fighters — to leave the refugee camp. The Association has been mediating between the militants and the army since fighting broke out in the camp on May 20.

The senior military official confirmed that a deal has been reached with Fatah al Islam fighters to allow their civilian relatives to leave the camp. "There is an agreement that they (the families) come out today ... If they're being truthful, we are ready," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity according to military rules. "We have taken all the necessary arrangements," he added, declining to elaborate.
"Each kiddie or its guardian may carry personal sidearms and enough ammunition for the first week of school."
Witnesses near the Nahr el-Bared camp in north Lebanon said the army seemed to have halted its bombardment as of Friday morning, suggesting that a truce to evacuate the families may be in place. A number of Muslim sheiks from the Paleo Scholars' Association have gathered at the southern entrance to the camp from where the civilians were expected to emerge, they added.

For weeks, the army has been calling on the estimated 100 women and children still in the camp to leave, clearing the way for a final military assault to eradicate the remaining Fatah al Islam fighters there. In the last two weeks, the Lebanese army has augmented its months-old artillery bombardment of the camp with massive 1000-pound bombs dropped from helicopters, which may have prompted the fighters to ask for the truce.

The camp's more than 31,000 civilian residents fled in the first weeks of the fighting and the army estimates only 70 Fatah Islam fighters remain, down from 360 when the fighting began. The army has refused to halt its offensive until the militants completely surrender, while, until now, the Islamists have vowed to fight to the death.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Fatah al-Islam gunnies seek truce
2007-08-22
Islamists who have fought the Lebanese army at a Palestinian refugee camp for the past three months are seeking a truce to let their families and other civilians flee, an intermediary said on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Fatah Al-Islam group, Abu Salim Taha, called the Palestinian Clerics’ Association late on Monday to ask for help in arranging a ceasefire in the fighting at Nahr Al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, an association member said. Palestinian clerics have tried unsuccessfully in the past to mediate between Fatah Al-Islam and the army, which demands the unconditional surrender of the Al Qaeda-inspired militants.

Lebanese and Palestinians sources have estimated that between 40 and 80 civilians, mostly the wives and children of the militants, remain in the camp, which lies in ruins after weeks of tank, artillery and helicopter bombardment. Most of the camp’s 40,000 refugees fled early on in the fighting. “We have always called on the militants to allow the women and children to flee. And now we have no objection to those civilians leaving the camp,” an army source said but gave no word on the terms of a truce.

Sheikh Mohammed Al-Haj of the Palestinian Clerics’ Association told Reuters the group had given Fatah Al-Islam the army’s response and were now waiting for the militants to come back with “numbers of civilians fleeing and the time period”. Another Lebanese soldier was killed in Nahr Al-Bared on Tuesday, bringing the army’s overall death toll to 141 since the conflict began on May 20, security sources said.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Army advances on militants in Nahr al-Bared
2007-07-31
BEIRUT: The army stepped up its offensive on the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared on Monday, moving in closer to the base of the Fatah al-Islam militants still holed up inside the camp. In addition, mainstream Fatah commander Sultan Abu al-Aynan voiced his optimism for a quick end to the battle. Army troops are "moving forward. We are controlling more buildings by the day, after clearing them of unexploded ordnance and booby-traps," an army official said on Monday.

"The gunmen now only control about 15,000 square meters," compared to 22,500 square meters last Friday and 45,000 square meters a week before then, he added.
Squeezing them into a smaller and smaller pocket
In a statement issued for the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Lebanese Army, commander General Michel Suleiman praised his troops for their efforts. "I want you to rest assured that all the sacrifices made by you and your fellow martyrs in the North have helped to draw a line in blood between a unified country and one in chaos and loss, between a Lebanon unique in the world and a Lebanon as a continuous ground for battle," he said. "On your behalf, I salute all those innocent martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the Lebanese people in the battle for dignity and national sovereignty," he added.

The army has spent the last two weeks advancing slowly through the camp, clearing land mines and booby-traps before humanitarian organizations enter to assess needs for the post-conflict reconstruction. A soldier was killed late Sunday night in the battle, bringing the total number of army deaths to 123. Monday saw an increase in artillery fire exchanged between the militants and the army, as the latter pushed on with its house-to-house battle.

According to witnesses in the area, the army renewed its call through loudspeakers for the militants to surrender or to allow their families to leave the camp. The gunmen so far have refused to surrender, instead vowing to fight to the death. Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha has warned the militants would send suicide bombers against the army if the offensive continues.

In other developments, Aynayn said the Lebanese Army's delay in resolving the confrontation with the Fatah al-Islam militants was a result of the army's concern for the civilian population. He added that he was confident the army would end the battle in a short time. "The members of the Abssi gang left in the Nahr al-Bared camp have reached a minimum," he said, referring to Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi. Speaking at a news conference at his headquarters south of Tyre on Monday, Aynayn estimated Fatah al-Islam's casualties at 75.

Another reason for the delay, he added, was the Lebanese Army's lack of information regarding the camp's geography and structure. "The reason why the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] did not assist the army in terminating the Abssi gang is due to various impediments set forth by some Palestinian forces in the country," he said. Aynayn stressed that the PLO would no longer wait for consensus regarding the handling of similar situations in any other camp.
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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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