LAF soldier dies in refugee camp blast

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Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 23, 2007

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A Lebanese soldier was killed and three others were critically injured in a bomb explosion Saturday in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, a senior military official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to give statements to media, said the blast occurred as the army was dismantling bombs and land mines in the Nahr el-Bared camp, the scene of a month-long battle between the military and al-Qaida-inspired fighters holed up inside.

Saturday's death brings to 77 the number of soldiers killed. More than 150 have been wounded since fighting erupted May 20 between the Lebanese troops and Fatah Islam militants in this camp near the port city of Tripoli.

After Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr declared victory over the militants on Thursday, the army has been mopping up segments of the camp under its control.

However, heavy machine gun fire and bursts of artillery shells reverberated across the camp Saturday - a sign that the clashes were continuing.

The state-run National News Agency said the army was responding to gunfire attacks on its positions around the camp and was pounding suspected militant hideouts deep inside the camp with artillery barrages.

Plumes of black and white smoke rose into the air as a result of the army shelling.

The fighting at Nahr el-Bared camp has been Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, claiming the lives of at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians. It came amid a fierce political power struggle between the Western-backed government and the militant Hizbullah-led opposition.

The Lebanese military said in a statement Friday that it had largely defeated Fatah Islam militants and overrun their positions inside the camp. It also said it had "completed its control over main (Fatah Islam) positions and was tightening the noose around the group's remaining fugitive members".

But two top leaders of the Fatah Islam militant group, Shaker al-Absi and his deputy, Abu Hureira, are still at large, along with an unknown number of fighters. They are believed to be holed up among the several thousand Palestinian civilians still inside sections of Nahr el-Bared not under army control. [Not mentioned in the BBC story]

...or, from the BBC, another agonizing attempt at impartial reporting...

...or, the Al Jazeera version...

The inside story of Fatah al Islam’s leader Shaker al-Absi

Saturday, 16 June, 2007 @ 8:53 PM

By Sami Haddad,
Ya Libnan Volunteer

Beirut, Lebanon - A look at the history behind Lebanon's leading face of terror - Shaker al-Absi. After starting out his professional life as a pilot of Russian MIG fighter planes, he switched to training revolutionaries with all types of weapons.

Born in 1955 in the Ain Sultan refugee camp near the city of Ariha (Jericho), in the Palestinian West Bank and in 1967 he emigrated to Jordan following the six day war which led to the Israeli occupation.

His brother Abdel Razzak el-Absi, a surgeon in Amman, Jordan, recently revealed telling details of Shaker al-Absi (pictured right). According to Abdel Razzak, Shaker excelled in school and moved to Tunisia to join the medical school, but the medical field was not really what he aspired to. Instead he wanted to get involved in liberating Palestine, one way or the other.

Shaker al-Absi then joined the Fatah organization of Yasser Arafat, which sent him to Libya to study and train to become a pilot. He succeeded in this and piloted MIG 23 fighter planes when Libya attacked Chad.

Shaker visited his brother Abdel Razzak in 1980, who was studying at a medical school in Cuba, on his way to Nicaragua where he intended to help the Sandanistas. He remained with the Sandanistas for 4 to 5 months his brother recalls. [Eek! Way to make me choke on my previous support for Daniel Ortega.]

In 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon Shaker fought in the Bekaa valley area of Lebanon with Fatah, because the organization did not own any fighter planes. Then from Lebanon he returned to Libya and from there he went to Yemen and then to Damascus, Syria where he finally settled.

In 2002 Syria arrested Shaker and sent him to jail for his activities with a restricted Islamist organization and accused him of plotting against the Syrian regime. Shaker remained in jail for 3 years, during which he was sentenced to death in absentia by Jordan for participating in planning and executing the murder in 2002 of Lawrence Folly the US ambassador to Jordan at the time. [A death penalty = 3 years.  This being fairly typical in Middle-Eastern sentencing.]

In 2005 Shaker was set free by Syria and moved to Lebanon to head up Fatah el-Intifada, a Syrian Intelligence-backed splinter group of the mainstream Fatah movement [Didn't we just read they were unrelated?] based out of the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut.

Few months later Shaker decided to join a strict Islamist group of about 100 other members and settled at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp. There he formed the Fatah al-Islam extremist Islamist movement.

Blind Extremism

In march 2007, Shaker told the New York Times newspaper that he believes in and fully supports the ideas of al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, adding he is not afraid of being called a terrorist.

Shaker added that he ”has the right to target American and Israeli civilians anyplace in the world."

He continued, “doesn’t America come here to kill our innocents and children. We have the right to attack them at their homes just like they attack us in our homes.”

His brother Abdel Razzak said: “My brother has chosen the strict Islamic way because he was desperate and depressed."

He added “we were all raised as Muslims like everyone else . We are also believers, but Shaker adopted the strict and extremist Islamic way after losing hope.“

Abdel Razzak went on to justify his brothers actions, “After 60 years of Israeli occupation what happened to the Palestinians? Nothing. The Palestinians adopted various ideologies in their attempts to liberate Palestine, as nationalists, Marxists, Leninists etc...but what did they accomplish? Nothing... only more despair.”

“My brother is one of those people who think extremist Islam has all the answers and could lead to liberating his country. Everything else failed, so he things this is the only road left,” Abdel Razzak added.

Denial, Denial, Denial

Abdel Razzak did not mention the fact that his brother Shaker is killing Lebanese soldiers in Nahr el Bared. He and his group started the conflict by attacking and slaughtering 27 soldiers during their sleep.

Abdel Razzak did not also mention that the Lebanese people have endured and protected the Palestinians for 60 years, despite the Israeli invasions of Lebanon.

Abdel Razzak did not mention that the whole problem with his brother started when his organization Fatah al-Islam bombed 2 busses and killed 3 innocent Lebanese and wounded another 20 in the Ain Alaq town of the northern Metn province in Mount Lebanon.

Abdel Razzak did not mention the fact that Fatah al-Islam robbed a Lebanese bank the night before the conflict started and stole $125,000.

Abdel Razzak did not say that the road to Palestine is not Nahr el Bared, nor is it by killing Lebanese soldiers. If any Palestinian wants to fight for Palestine, the place is Palestine and not Lebanon.

Shaker al-Absi's past is a telling account of the making of a terrorist, and unfortunately how peaceful countries like Lebanon have to suffer the consequences. Obviously al-Absi is severely misguided. Instead of saying thank you to a country that adopted him, he is killing those same people that protected him - the Lebanese soldiers and the innocent Lebanese people.

Al-Absi is the story of a sick mind that blames his own failures on others.

Al-Absi is the story of a coward, who is dangerously manipulating Islam and the Palestinian cause to achieve his own evil ambition.

 

3 killed in attack on UNIFIL patrol in south Lebanon

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JPost Staff and Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 24, 2007

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At least three Spanish UN peacekeepers were killed and six others wounded in an attack on a UNIFIL patrol in southern Lebanon on Sunday afternoon.

The incident took place near Al-Hijam, south of Marj Ayoun, on the eastern part of the border with Israel. UNIFIL forces were on route to the site of the attack to investigate.

According to Israel Radio, a car bomb detonated near a UNIFIL patrol vehicle.

UNIFIL was unable to confirm the report, saying that it was unclear whether the incident was a terror attack. Officials said that the patrol may have run over a mine. However, they were not able to confirm that theory.

The attack late Sunday afternoon was the first ever against UNIFIL forces in the region.

No organization claimed responsibility for the attack, but forces affiliated with al-Qaida were cited as the possible initiators of the attack, an analyst speaking on Israel Radio said moments after the explosion.

Al Hijam, a relatively quiet village with a mostly Christian population, was used as Hizbullah's main headquarters in the eastern front during the Second Lebanon War. While Hizbullah usually eschewed attacking Israel from the Hijam area, IDF sources believed in August 2006 that several hundred Hizbullah fighters were holed up in bunkers in and around al Hijam.

 

Al Jazeera isn't up to date yet. There is just a "breaking news" flash across the top of the screen reading:

Lebanese TV station reports UN peacekeepers hurt in mine explosion. More soon.

 

While BBC seems to think it had something to do with Israel...

Graziano Q & A

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Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 22, 2007

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What is UNIFIL doing to prevent Hizbullah activity in southern Lebanon?
It is like police activity. We have 400 patrols a day and 190 observation posts. That means we have control of the terrain and the area, and that means that no hostile activity or open carrying of weapons can happen, because we are there... There are 13,000 peacekeepers and four brigades of LAF. Open operations and open activities are impossible.

What about the reports that Hizbullah is rebuilding itself in southern Lebanon?
I can say that we are working hard to prevent any hostile activity and to keep the area south of the Litani and north of the Blue Line free of any weapons other than the ones that LAF and UNIFIL have. Accordingly we are in close coordination with the IDF, and so we take seriously any kind of indication or evidence that can be provided. We can say that in our area of operations, a [Hizbullah] rearmament has not yet taken place. In my area of operations, there is no open hostile activity. When we hear of smuggling - which I hear about from Israeli authorities - it is in reference to other parts, but not in my area of authority. If Israel has evidence, we are keen to take it and to check it.

So at the moment, Israel is not showing you the intelligence?
We are in close coordination, and if we receive an indication, we work to prevent hostile activities - but there is no evidence of any rearmament happening in southern Lebanon. There is no one going around southern Lebanon with weapons, and if someone were to go around with weapons - even a hunter - then they would be arrested.

What about the Sunday Times report of a new bunker system being built by Hizbullah in southern Lebanon?
We are going to find it if it really exists. I think it doesn't exist, since we are physically patrolling every corner of southern Lebanon, and if there were a bunker, we would have found it.

Israel says, however, that you don't go into areas where Hizbullah trains, such as nature reserves, since you fear clashing with them?
No. We spend a lot of time there. This is not true. We are applying 1701 to the maximum, and 1701 doesn't allow UNIFIL to physically search in a house independently. But we do it in support of LAF, and if there is an indication, we go there. We have been everywhere. It is also physically impossible [for Hizbullah to train in the open]. There are 400 patrols a day, and the area is 1,100 square km.

What do you think about Israeli assessments of another war with Hizbullah?
I don't know, but when I meet with my IDF counterparts, they tell us that UNIFIL is doing a good job. Maybe they think we could have a different mandate, but that is up to the UN, and I think that it will not happen. The south is under my responsibility, and I am accountable for it.

So you don't see the possibility of war?
In this situation, not at all.

 

A group of islamistas terrorists kills in Iraq five American soldiers. An example. In the chain TO BE the news immediately happens to become “a group of insurgents kill five American soldiers in Iraq”. On the following day something similar in the Country would be. Insurgent or rebel. This Sunday six Spanish soldiers of the forces of the UN in Lebanon have been assassinated in a terrorist attack. The military vehicle in that they traveled passed next to a car pump that was activated at a distance. Behind this escabechina, a group related to A the Qaeda, Fatah To the Islam. Today the Country collects of the happened thing. “An attributed attack to A the Qaeda kills 6 soldiers of the Spanish contingent in Lebanon”. The Web of the Chain TO BE also: “A van pump caused yesterday the death of the six soldiers of the Spanish contingent in the south of Lebanon”. Today, at least today, the terrorists are not, with a perversely used language, insurgent or simply rebellious. Today to call to A the insurgent or rebellious Qaeda would be very ugly. And tomorrow?

Here's the Spanish version:

What now Mr. Zapatero, the son of a peaceable shoemaker? The papers are also calling him a "false pacificist" for implying you could send blue-helmeted post-adolescents into a war zone and call them "peacemakers."

Sooner or later...

Susan

Lebanon: Mate of Aussie champ says 'Trigger' too nice to be a terrorist

Wednesday, 27 June, 2007 @ 3:19 PM

Beirut - A friend of Ahmed Elomar, one of four Australians arrested in Lebanon, said he would be surprised if the boxer was involved with terrorism.

Elomar, 24, who uses the name "Trigger" in the boxing ring, was one of four dual Australian-Lebanese citizens recently arrested in the country's north over alleged connections to the militant group Fatah al-Islam.

The reigning Australian super featherweight champion, who fought on the undercard for an Anthony Mundine fight last year, left Australia two weeks ago with his wife and two young children.

Sydney Muslim youth leader Fadi Rahman said his friend was a devoted family man.

"He's of very good character, a very kind person, he's fairly quiet, a family orientated person," Mr Rahman told Network Ten.

"It would quite surprise me if he was involved in such a thing."

Boxing coach Tony Mundine, the father of Anthony, said he was also surprised by the reports.

"He was very polite to me and at our boxing tournament, he was very, very nice and very gentle," Mr Mundine told ABC Radio.

Australian consular officials continue to be denied access to the four men, with Lebanese authorities saying they want to first complete their questioning.

"We haven't got consular access to them and we have been told by the Lebanese defense ministry that we'll get consular access once they're charged," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Israel on Wednesday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is refusing to confirm the name of any of those arrested.

But the family of Ibrahim Sabouh, a devout Muslim who moved from Sydney to Lebanon with his wife and family a year ago, say he is among the four.

The other three are Elomar, former taxi driver Omar Hadba and another man, Mohammad Basal, media reports say.

News Ltd has reported that the four men are linked to Sydney-based hardline Muslim cleric Faiz Mohammed, who is based at the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, in Sydney's south-west.

Calls to the centre were not returned on Wednesday.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) would not confirm whether the four men had previously been known to them.

"The AFP is conducting inquiries into these men through its senior liaison officer in Beirut," a spokesman said.

"It is not appropriate for the AFP to comment as to whether these inquiries could result in an investigation in Australia."

DFAT also is investigating reports at least one other Australian had been taken into custody, and that an Australian had been killed during the fighting.

Just like Fadi Rahman and Tony Mundine, Ahmed himself was incredulous that Uncle Mohamed would be involved in terrorist activities in Australia.

UN expects a 'summer of peace' in south Lebanon despite attack

Thursday, 28 June, 2007 @ 5:23 PM

Beirut - The UN force in south Lebanon expects a "summer of peace" for the region despite the menace of more attacks on peacekeepers, their commander said in an interview published on Thursday.

But he also called for more to be done in clearing the region of weapons.

"We take seriously the possibility of other attacks. We hope the new security measures and the political process will manage to prevent them," said Major-General Claudio Graziano ( pictured right) of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Three Spanish and three Colombian-born troops of UNIFIL were killed last Sunday in a bomb attack in southern Lebanon as they patrolled between the towns of Marjayoun and Khiam, about 10 KM (six miles) from the Israeli border.

"There are still arms in the south. The Lebanese authorities must do more, with the support of UNIFIL, to secure the region and clear it of weapons," the general told leading Beirut daily An-Nahar.

The Italian commander, whose comments were translated into Arabic, said there were no results yet from the UN probe into the attack, which has not been claimed by anyone.

"We believe there could be some possible link with what is happening in north Lebanon," he was quoted as saying, referring to the Lebanese army's deadly showdown with Islamist militants in the north of the country.

It was the first fatal attack on peacekeepers since UNIFIL was reinforced last year following a devastating 34-day summer war between Israel and guerrillas of Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah.

"I think that for the people of the south, this summer will be a summer of peace. And we will be taking care of the problem of terrorist attacks," Graziano told An-Nahar.

"I am sure we are strong enough and that we are in control of the Blue Line," the UN-demarcated border between Israel and Lebanon, he said. "At the moment, I don't see any intention" between the two sides for renewed fighting.

The general said 13,000 troops were now deployed with UNIFIL, including about 1,800 patrolling at sea off the Lebanese coast. More reinforcements are due in coming months when South Korea will send soldiers, he said.

 

Lebanon deploys 300- strong police force along borders with Syria

Monday, 2 July, 2007 @ 5:53 PM

Beirut - A 300-strong police force deployed along Lebanon's northern borders with Syria Monday in what appears to be an attempt to prevent the alleged smuggling of weapons and fighters.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the force set up "observation posts" along the northern border stretch from the seaside Arida crossing in the west to the village of Hnaider towards the east.

The posts were erected along the southern bank of the Grand River, the natural barrier separating Lebanon from Syria in the Northern Province.

The Lebanese Army also had set up observation posts in the region following reports of stepped up smuggling of weapons from Syria to Lebanon and the trafficking of terrorists engaged in clashes with government troops.

The United Nations also has referred to reports about alleged smuggling of weapons from Syria to Lebanon.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria and Iran last Friday to do more to prevent arms smuggling to Lebanon, citing "disturbing reports" from the Lebanese and Israeli governments of alleged violations of the U.N. arms embargo.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Hezbollah-Israel war last summer, was supposed to end the smuggling of weapons into Lebanon from neighboring Syria.

Fatah al Islam
The pro-government parliament majority has accused Syria of creating, arming and funding Fatah al Islam militants that are currently engaged in a fight with the Lebanese army in north Lebanon. They say the militants who are of different nationalities, from Bangladesh to Morocco , have entered Lebanon with their weapons illegally from Syria . They accuse Syria of using the Palestinian militants to destabilize Lebanon.

Picture: In this map of Lebanon the borders with Syria are highlighted in red

 

Lebanese Army gives Fatah al-Islam final opportunity to surrender

Saturday, 7 July, 2007 @ 6:33 PM

Nahr El Bared - The Lebanese army called on Fatah al-Islam extremists in a besieged refugee camp on Saturday to surrender and bring an end to fighting that has raged for nearly seven weeks.

"The army command, anxious to put an end to the bloodshed ... calls on the armed men of Fatah al-Islam ... to take the initiative and surrender to the armed forces," said a statement carried by the official Lebanese national news agency.

The army appealed to the Islamist fighters in the northern Palestinian camp of Nahr al-Bared "not to prevent those who wish (to surrender) from doing so, particularly casualties so that they can receive the necessary treatment".

"They must facilitate the exit of civilians detained against their will in order to put an end to the abnormal situation to which the camp is being subjected," it added.

Fighting broke out at the refugee camp on May 20 when Islamists launched a series of attacks against soldiers, killing 27 of them around the camp and in Tripoli, the main city in northern Lebanon.

The government and the army have since been calling on the Fatah al-Islam combatants to surrender.

Several hundred of Nahr al-Bared's pre-conflict refugee population of 31,000 have been living under difficult conditions during the fighting.

According to a count compiled from official figures, the conflict has claimed at least 173 lives, including 85 soldiers. It is the deadliest internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.

 

From Ya Libnan again...

Saudi terrorists killed in North Lebanon

Monday, 9 July, 2007 @ 4:30 PM

Beirut - Lebanese authorities have identified the bodies of 10 Saudis among Fatah al-Islam militants killed in fighting with the army in northern Lebanon, a senior security official said on Monday.

"We have identified the bodies of 10 Saudis among the 27 bodies taken by police" since clashes first erupted between the Islamists and Lebanese armed forces on May 20, he said on condition of anonymity.

The official said 17 bodies of Fatah al-Islam combatants were found in the main northern port city of Tripoli and 10 others nearby.

"Police have not taken away the body of any combatant from inside Nahr al-Bared," he said, referring to the impoverished camp near Tripoli where clashes are continuing.

He said the body of Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha, who has been reportedly killed in the clashes, was not among the 27 bodies recovered by police.

"I don't think that Abu Salim is Saudi. He is probably a Palestinian national," he said.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan said on Sunday that six Saudi militants had been killed in the clashes, including Abu Salim Taha whose real name is Al-Hamadi Abdullah al-Dussari, 23.

"We are running DNA tests in order to identify the combattants, most of whom were carrying false passports or false identity cards," the Lebanese security official said.

Saudi Arabia in Denial

On July 2, Sultan Abul Aynayn, the Lebanon chief of the mainstream Fatah faction, said that 42 Saudis figured among the Fatah al-Islam militiamen fighting the army.

He said 20 had been killed, one has surrendered, and another 21 were still holed up inside Nahr al-Bared, three of them wounded.

But Riyadh's consul in Beruit, Abdel-Hadi al Shafei, said few of the dead fighters had been identified as Saudi and there was no evidence that many more were fighting at the camp.

"Lebanese parties are exploiting the Saudi presence among Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared camp," Shafei told London- based daily al-Hayat, which is owned by a senior Saudi prince.

"There is a desire to embarrass Saudi Arabia by announcing 'large numbers' of Saudis among the dead, although bodies are charred and disfigured and no documents have affirmed they are Saudi."

Shafei said only six to eight bodies in a Tripoli morgue were those of Saudi nationals and one body had been delivered to its Saudi family. He said it was not known if any Saudis were among Fatah al-Islam fighters who had been buried in Lebanon.

The Al-Qaeda-inspired group is also made up of Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian fighters, according to the army, which has been battling Fatah al-Islam in the bloodiest internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

According to a count compiled from official figures, the conflict has claimed at least 173 lives, including 85 soldiers. Many bodies are believed to have abandoned amid the ruins of Nahr al-Bared.