Fatah al-Islam claims responsibility for weekend blast near Nahr al-Bared
Source: Daily Star, 03-06-2008
BEIRUT: Fatah al-Islam, the Sunni militant group which fought the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) for three months at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the summer of 2007, said on Monday it had planted the bomb that killed an LAF soldier near the camp on Saturday.
Faxes arrived on Monday at various new outlets in Lebanon purportedly from the group's media office, saying that its members had remotely detonated the bomb that killed 23-year-old Oussama al-Hassan at an intelligence services office in Aabdeh, near the northern entrance to the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.
The LAF also found three other unexploded bombs which had been planted nearby, although the army does not yet know why the devices failed to go off, said an LAF officer who requested anonymity.
The fax said that Fatah al-Islam had planted the bombs to avenge the deaths of its "mujahideen" during the 15-week conflict last summer.
More than 220 Fatah al-Islam militants and about 170 Lebanese troops were killed in the fighting, and more than 200 people have been charged in connection with the battle.
"Some people thought that our craving had decreased, but they were wrong, thank God," the fax said. "The thought of unity and truth was and will always continue beating.
"The swords of righteousness will remain unsheathed to punish the oppressors, the unjust, the infidels and the criminals and to let them feel the evil they have visited upon us with their black hands."
In last year's conflict, the LAF surrounded Fatah al-Islam in the camp and slowly closed in, until the few dozen remaining militants launched an abortive mass escape bid before dawn last September 2. The LAF killed about 40 militants during the failed breakout, but Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi apparently made his way out of the camp a few hours before the final drama.
Monday's fax did not mention Saturday's other refugee-camp security incident, when the LAF shot dead a man wearing a belt of explosives at the entrance to the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon. The LAF source refused to comment on any possible link between the two incidents until the army completed its investigation.
The LAF is also trying to determine the real identity of the man, who was carrying a false Palestinian ID card, the source added. The Palestine Liberation Organization's security head in Lebanon, Mounir Maqdah, said the would-be suicide bomber was not a resident of Ain al-Hilweh, and all factions in the camp were helping the Lebanese military with its inquiry. Maqdah said any such attacks that destabilize Lebanon served only to benefit the "Zionist enemy."
BEIRUT: Fatah al-Islam, the Sunni militant group which fought the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) for three months at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the summer of 2007, said on Monday it had planted the bomb that killed an LAF soldier near the camp on Saturday.
Faxes arrived on Monday at various new outlets in Lebanon purportedly from the group's media office, saying that its members had remotely detonated the bomb that killed 23-year-old Oussama al-Hassan at an intelligence services office in Aabdeh, near the northern entrance to the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.
The LAF also found three other unexploded bombs which had been planted nearby, although the army does not yet know why the devices failed to go off, said an LAF officer who requested anonymity.
The fax said that Fatah al-Islam had planted the bombs to avenge the deaths of its "mujahideen" during the 15-week conflict last summer.
More than 220 Fatah al-Islam militants and about 170 Lebanese troops were killed in the fighting, and more than 200 people have been charged in connection with the battle.
"Some people thought that our craving had decreased, but they were wrong, thank God," the fax said. "The thought of unity and truth was and will always continue beating.
"The swords of righteousness will remain unsheathed to punish the oppressors, the unjust, the infidels and the criminals and to let them feel the evil they have visited upon us with their black hands."
In last year's conflict, the LAF surrounded Fatah al-Islam in the camp and slowly closed in, until the few dozen remaining militants launched an abortive mass escape bid before dawn last September 2. The LAF killed about 40 militants during the failed breakout, but Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi apparently made his way out of the camp a few hours before the final drama.
Monday's fax did not mention Saturday's other refugee-camp security incident, when the LAF shot dead a man wearing a belt of explosives at the entrance to the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon. The LAF source refused to comment on any possible link between the two incidents until the army completed its investigation.
The LAF is also trying to determine the real identity of the man, who was carrying a false Palestinian ID card, the source added. The Palestine Liberation Organization's security head in Lebanon, Mounir Maqdah, said the would-be suicide bomber was not a resident of Ain al-Hilweh, and all factions in the camp were helping the Lebanese military with its inquiry. Maqdah said any such attacks that destabilize Lebanon served only to benefit the "Zionist enemy."
