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BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese troops on Saturday killed two Islamist militants including a head of an Al-Qaeda-inspired group which fought a battle with the army in 2007 that cost hundreds of lives, a military spokesman said. "Abdel Rahman Awad, one of the key leaders of Fatah al-Islam," was killed along with another militant known as Abu Bakr during clashes in the eastern Bekaa Valley region, the spokesman told AFP. A judicial source said Abu Bakr was Awad's key deputy who provided military training to members of Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy group said to be inspired by Al-Qaeda. In 2007, Fatah...

Scott Sanford May 14th, 2009 | Arab media, Lebanon SNIPPET: "Falluja Forum contributor Abu al-Ghadiyah recently posted an article titled “Transformations of ‘Usbat al-Ansar” that the Lebanese paper al-Akhbar published in March. The article was part of a larger series of reports that journalist Hasan ‘Aliq wrote regarding the political and security climate in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp Ain al-Hilweh. He argues that the Islamist position is growing stronger in the camp due to changes in their attitudes towards the Lebanese state. However, Fatah attempts to check the Islamists’ growing influence have resulted in bloodshed and instability." SNIPPET: "Lebanon’s...

NEFA Foundation: Fatah al-Islam Claims Death of Leader, Endorses Terror Financing Through Bank Robberies SNIPPET: "Fatah al-Islam was also specifically insistent on the legitimacy of committing bank robberies as a financing tactic: “we say, relying on Allah, that stealing money from the infidels, from the usurious banks and the institutions which belong to the infidel regimes and states, is a legal thing which Allah has permitted us to do. This money is being seized from them and instead directed towards jihad and the mujahideen in order to fulfill their needs, to buy equipment etc.” English translations of the communiques can...

Reports: Syria behind Fatah al-Islam activities Al-Bawaba, Jordan - Nov 15, 2008 In response to confessions aired by Syria's state television, the Beirut-based al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Saturday carried testimonies made by Fatah al-Islam ...http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Lebanon/237746

In response to confessions aired by Syria's state television, the Beirut-based al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Saturday carried testimonies made by Fatah al-Islam detainees. While the confessions broadcast on Syrian TV accused Mustaqbal Movement of financing Fatah al-Islam, written confessions indicated that the detainees accuse Syrian intelligence agencies of supporting the al-Qaeda affiliated group, the newspaper said. It quoted one detainee identified as Youssef Darwish as saying that Syrian authorities tasked him with training a group of Fatah-Intifada after being dispatched to the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. That same group, according to the daily, was also composed of...

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria said on Thursday that an Islamist militant group active in neighbouring Lebanon was behind a suicide car bomb attack that killed 17 people in Damascus in September. State television showed what it said were 12 members of Fatah al-Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired group that first emerged in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, confessing that they had helped plan the September 27 attack on an intelligence complex in the Syrian capital. Abdel Baqi Hussein, a Syrian who identified himself as the security coordinator of Fatah al-Islam, said the explosives had been smuggled from Lebanon and the suicide...

Roadside bomb kills at least 18 in Lebanon It was the worst attack on the army since last summer, when it fought a 16-week battle with al- Qaeda-inspired militant group Fatah al-Islam, losing 170 soldiers. The gunmen, of Lebanese, Palestinian and other Arab nationalities, were holed up in the Nahr El-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, just north of Tripoli. Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi and other fighters slipped away during the battle and remain on the loose.

On February 18, 2008, Lebanese prosecutor-general Judge Sa'id Mirza submitted a report on his two-year investigation of the February 2007 terrorist attack in 'Ain 'Alaq, a Christian town in northern Lebanon. [1] The findings of the investigation indicate that Fath Al-Islam was behind the attack, but the report also implies a possible connection between Fath Al-Islam and the Syrian regime. [2]

18 minutes ago BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanese security officials and TV stations report explosion in suburb of Beirut. just in, broadcast on KGO

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon said on Tuesday its army killed at least 222 Islamist militants from an al Qaeda-linked group in a 15-week battle at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The army finally took control of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp on Sunday after more than three months of fierce battles, including air, sea and land bombardment against the entrenched Fatah al-Islam militants. Defence Minister Elias al-Murr also said 202 militants were captured in the battles and an unknown number were buried in mass graves inside the largely destroyed camp. "This victory uprooted the biggest threat that faced...

Lebanese forces killed at least 31 gunmen who tried to flee a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, security sources said. Eleven more fighters from the Fatah al-Islam group were captured when they tried to break out of the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon. Following the fight, the Lebanese army took full control on the Palestinian camp, a senior security source said. "The battle is over. The Lebanese army has seized the last positions of Fatah al-Islam in the camp," the source told Reuters. The army had estimated that 35 active fighters remained in the camp before Sunday, but it...

Nahr El Bared now fell to the Lebanese Army

Lebanon charges 227 Fatah al-Islam militants with terrorism... Most of them are Lebanese nationals but there are also two Syrians, one Tunisian, one Algerian, five Saudis and a number of Palestinians. ...

No, this isn't (see video below) the new clip of Randy Crawford's song 'One Day I'll Fly Away'. Nor is it the new Super-, Spider- or He-Man. This is exclusive footage of an Al-Qaeda inspired terrorist getting directly hit by a Lebanese army mortar. But that isn't the end, it is basically the beginning. Immediately after the mortar hits the building, the militant is - literally - catapulted 40 meters into the air. Eventually he falls back to earth and disappears in the smoke of the explosion. This little clip, to me at least, shows the madness of war. I...

The sudden outbreak of fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam in late May has touched off a flurry of conspiracy theories about the meteoric rise of this shadowy terrorist group. Supporters of Lebanon's ruling March 14 coalition typically allege that the militant fundamentalist organization is an "imitation al-Qaeda" secretly controlled by the secular Baathist regime of neighboring Syria,[1] while those on the other side of the political divide allege that Fatah al-Islam is a creation of Lebanon's ruling coalition. While both narratives (like all good conspiracy theories) draw upon tantalizing grains of truth, the emergence of Fatah al-Islam...

Fatah al-Islam, a Palestinian Islamist group, has been waging an uprising in Lebanon which has attracted huge media coverage. Most journalists identify this group with al-Qa'ida or are just plain confused as to its identity. In fact, what is happening is a major deception operation by Syria, a rather typical case of how radical forces in the region fool the West, score against their adversaries, and avoid any retaliation for their deeds. Let's first describe the story briefly, then explain the motives and proof behind it. An outline goes like this: Step1: Syria wants to sponsor violence and terrorism in...

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, (Reuters) - An uneasy calm settled over a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday after the Lebanese army declared victory in 33 days of fighting against al Qaeda-inspired militants. The battle for Nahr al-Bared camp in which 172 people were killed was Lebanon's worst outbreak of internal violence since a 1975-90 civil war. Smoke curled from buildings shattered by shelling at one entrance to the camp, but only a few explosions and a brief rattle of gunfire after dawn broke the silence. Security sources said the blasts were caused by soldiers blowing up booby-trapped buildings...

Lebanese troops demolished the apartment of Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker Abssi in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared camp after his terrorists killed two Lebanese Red Cross rescuers Monday. Reliable sources told Naharnet Lebanese troops stormed Abssi's apartment in the Noras compound, in the center of Nahr al-Bared, confiscated a large quantity of documents from it and demolished the whole building. This, the sources explained, leaves Abssi's terrorists besieged in the three remaining buildings of the Noras compound. State-run National News Agency identified the two LRC fatalities as Boulos Miimari and Haitham Suleiman. The wounded LRC rescuer was...

Lebanese troops have pierced into the last stronghold of Fatah al-Islam terrorists in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared fighting Syria's allies with bayonets and daggers. At least five soldiers were "martyred" in the face-to-face confrontation Saturday while 20 terrorists were killed. The daily an-Nahar reported ferocious confrontations in the camp to finish off the Fatah al-Islam gang, headed by Jordanian-Palestinian Shaker al-Abssi. It quoted unnamed security sources as saying fighters from all the factions affiliated with Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime are taking part with Abssi terrorists in confronting the army at Nahr al-Bared. An-Nahar also said...

Fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist gunmen flared again on Wednesday as their deadly standoff entered its 11th day and aid workers sent in more supplies to stranded civilians. According to AFP, the army reported several exchanges of fire on Wednesday but without any fresh casualties at Nahr al-Bared camp. The militants "holed up on the rooftops of apartment buildings, opened fire several times at positions set up on the perimetre of the camp by the army, which responded with cannon fire", an army spokesman said. On Tuesday, a Lebanese soldier was killed in a firefight, bringing to 79...

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- Terrorism inspired by religious fanaticism was always considered a frightening myth that many in Lebanon refused to acknowledge despite all warnings that indicated otherwise. However, the myth became a reality with the confrontation between the militant Fatah al-Islam group and the Lebanese army currently taking place at Nahr al Bared and Tripoli in northern Lebanon. The clash at the camp is the bloodiest internal conflict in Lebanon since the civil war ended 17 years ago, and poses a long term threat to Lebanon's internal security. Fatah al Islam is not the forerunner of violent extremism in Lebanon....

A purported leader of the militant Fatah al-Islam group, which has been battling the Lebanese army in a Palestinian refugee camp, vowed on Saturday to fight "the Americans and the Jews". Al Jazeera television, which broadcast the videotaped message, identified the man as Shaker al-Abssi and said it was the Palestinian's first public appearance. "We say to you, the guardians of the American project, the Sunni people will be leaders in fighting the Jews, the Americans and their loyalists," Abssi said, referring to Lebanese leaders.

In an interview with the London daily Al-Hayat, the military commander of the Fath Al-Islam organization, Shihab Al-Qaddour, also known as Abu Hurieira, threatened that if attacks by the Lebanese military against his organization continued, "all fronts will be opened" and that Fath Al-Islam would be "ready to blow up every place in Lebanon." He also noted that his organization's activists were prepared for a battle lasting two years or more. Al-Qaddour, 36, from the village of Mishmish in the sub-district of Akkar in northern Lebanon, is considered the No. 2 man in Fath Al-Islam, after the leader Shaker Al-'Absi....

Nahr al-Bared Unraveling: Fatah al-Islam In a renewed bout of violence after a temporary ceasefire on May 22, Lebanon finds itself engulfed in its sixth day of conflict pitting the Lebanese Armed Forces against radical militant group, Fatah al-Islam. In the fighting that started on May 20, approximately 22 to 55 combatants and around 27 civilians have died, while the Red Cross estimates that 13,000 to 15,000 refugees have fled, most to neighboring Badawi camp. The fighting began when Lebanese security forces tried to arrest Fatah al-Islam members who were suspected of a bank robbery on the outskirts of the...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Military aid began arriving Friday after the United States said it will rush supplies to the Lebanese army fighting al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded inside a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north. Meanwhile, sporadic gunfire exchanges early Friday punctured the lull in the fighting as the Lebanese army continued to build up around the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp near the port city of Tripoli. Although U.S. officials said the military aid to Lebanon had been agreed to before the fighting broke out this week, the speedy shipment Friday marked the first tangible U.S. backing of the Lebanese...

Four Palestinians killed near Syria-Iraq border http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=55463 (May 11 2007) Ten wounded in Gaza clash; defiant Hamas TV airs resistance Mickey Mouse NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon/GAZA: Syrian forces have killed four members of Palestinian group Fatah al-Islam trying to sneak across the border to join the insurgency in Iraq, the group said on Friday. A spokesman for Fatah al-Islam, who gave his name as Abu Salim, told AFP that the incident occurred on the Syrian border with Iraq almost a week ago, and that five Syrian soldiers were killed in the clash. “The Syrian forces killed two military chiefs of Fatah...

Fatah Islam vows to fight each & every "crusader"...

Militants 'will fight to the last drop of blood' By Harry de Quetteville in Shatila camp, Beirut Last Updated: 1:20am BST 25/05/2007 Islamic militants besieged inside a refugee camp in Lebanon will fight "to the last drop of blood", supporters of their leader said yesterday. Some of the refugees who left the Nahr al-Bared camp. Thousands remain trapped inside as the militants threaten to fight on The warning came as Lebanese troops clashed again with the Fatah al-Islam fighters led by Shaker al-Absi in the Nahr al-Bared camp on the outskirts of Tripoli. Al-Absi, a 52-year-old jet pilot turned Islamic...

Fatah al-Islam's No. 2 man and son-in-law of the extremist group's leader Shaker Absi has been reportedly wounded during clashes with Lebanese troops in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. The daily An Nahar did not identify Absi's relative, but said his foot was blown off in the fighting. It said 13 other Fatah al-Islam militants were shot and killed by Lebanese army fire as they tried to flee Nahr al-Bared by boat to the southern refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh. An Nahar said other Fatah al-Islam fighters were arrested and handed over to the intelligence bureau. The...

Lebanese troops killed a militant from the extremist Fatah al-Islam during a house raid in the northern port city of Tripoli, police said. They said Bilal Drakish, also known as Abu Jandal, was shot dead on Wednesday as he prepared to throw a grenade at a unit of security forces raiding an apartment in Tripoli's northern neighborhood of Tibanneh. Police said the security forces had been pursuing Drakish who tried to throw a hand grenade at them but was fatally shot before he could trigger it. State-run National News Agency said two passers-by were wounded in the exchange and...

Excerpt - BEIRUT, May 23 (Reuters) - An explosion at a Druze town east of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Wednesday wounded at least four people, security sources said. The blast in Aley, which lies near the Beirut-Damascus road, caused damage to nearby shops and buildings, one security source said. ~ snip ~

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 5/22/07 - Ein el-Hilweh, Nahr al-Bared, Verdun Beirut BREAKING: Nahr al-Bared 'Palestinian'-al Qaeda terrorist camp under seige by Lebanese soldiers BREAKING: Verdun Beirut shopping center - evening explosion BREAKING: Ein el-Hilweh terrorist camp - PLO 'Palestinian' terrorist camp QFN ==== YE OLDE QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU WILL NOT SEE IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ========= Nahr al-Bared 'Palestinian' terrorist camp ========= At the Nahr al-Bared 'Palestinian'-al Qaeda terrorist camp Lebanese soldiers continue to free the city on day three and assault the al Qaeda in their 'safe house'. The Lebanese...

The Lebanese government has authorized the army to "finish off" Islamic militants fighting Lebanese troops for the third straight day Tuesday in a refugee camp in the country's north. The decision by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora reflected the government's determination to pursue the Islamic militants who staged attacks on Lebanese troops on Sunday and Monday, killing 29 soldiers. Some 20 militants have also been killed, as well as an undetermined number of civilians.

TRIPOLI: Deep in a violent and lawless slum just north of this coastal city, 12 men with their faces shrouded by black and red-and-white scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs. In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. "Allahu Akbar," the men shouted their praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall. The men belong to a new militant Islamic organization called Fatah al-Islam, whose leader, a fugitive Palestinian named Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a refugee camp here where he is training fighters and spreading the ideology of Al Qaeda. He...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon, May 20 — Fierce clashes erupted between Lebanese Army soldiers and Islamic militants in the vicinity of a Palestinian refugee camp here on Sunday, leaving 22 Lebanese soldiers and 17 militants dead and dozens injured in one of the most significant challenges to the army since the end of Lebanon’s bloody civil war. The confrontation with the Islamist group, Fatah al-Islam, raised fears of a wider battle to rout militants in the rest of Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps, where radical Islam has been gaining in recent years. That, in turn, raised the possibility of a deadly conclusion to...

Bearded young Palestinians parade with rocket-launchers during training in north Lebanon organized by Fatah al-Islam, a tiny group accused of terror attacks. The new recruits also carry assault rifles and heavy machine guns as they march alongside militant Abu Salim, who hides his face under a red-and-white headscarf. "Our main objective is to combat the Jews in Palestine. We want to plant the banner of Islam in Palestine," Abu Salim told Agence France Presse. He said Fatah al-Islam "offers military training to young Palestinians" in a field near the sea at the Nahr al-Bared camp that houses about 22,000 refugees....

Leader of Lebanon's al-Qaeda cell pledges to strike America again SOUAD MEKHENNET AND MICHAEL MOSS IN TRIPOLI, LEBANON DEEP in a violent and lawless slum just north of the Lebanese coastal city of Tripoli, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs. In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. "Allah-u akbar," the men shouted in praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall. The men belong to a new militant Islamic organisation called Fatah al Islam. Its leader, fugitive Palestinian Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Deep in a violent and lawless slum just north of this coastal city, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs. In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. “Allah-u akbar,” the men shouted in praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall. The men belong to a new militant Islamic organization called Fatah al Islam, whose leader, a fugitive Palestinian named Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a refugee camp here where he trains fighters and spreads the ideology of Al Qaeda. He has...