Fatah al-Islam (Arabic: فتح الإسلام) is a Sunni Arab Islamist group, [1] described as a militant jihadist[2] terrorist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda.[2][3][4]
Fatah al-Islam is led by a fugitive militant named Shaker al-Abssi,[3] a Palestinian refugee who was born in Jericho in 1955,[5] who was was once a pilot with the rank of colonel.[6]
Al-Abssi's first militant activities can be traced to connections he established with a secular Palestinian militant group named Fatah Al-Intifada[3] in Libya, after it defected from the umbrella Fateh movement in 1983.[6] From Libya, al-Abssi reportedly moved to Damascus, where he made close ties with Fatah Al-Intifada's number two in command, Abu Khaled Al-Omla.[6]
Syrian authorities arrested al-Abssi in 2000 and sentenced him to three years in prison on charges of smuggling weapons and ammunition between Jordan and Syria.[6][7] Upon his release from prison following the US-led invasion of Iraq, al-Abssi went to Iraq, fought alongside groups loyal to Al-Qaeda, and is said to have made friends with a number of Al-Qaeda leaders there.[6]
In 2004, Al-Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia by a Jordanian military court for involvement in the assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley.[7] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was also sentenced to death for the killing of Foley and was thought to have been an associate of Al-Abssi.[5]
Al-Abssi briefly returned to Syria, where he again hooked up with Omla who helped him relocate to Lebanon, where he and a group of youth he met in Iraq set themselves up in the headquarters of Fatah Al-Intifada in the village of Helwa in the Western Beqaa in 2005.[6] In May 2006, Al-Abssi and this small group engaged in armed clashes with Lebanese soldiers that led to the killing of one young Syrian wanted by Damascus for fighting in Iraq.[6]
Syrian intelligence services then summoned Omla to ask him about al-Abssi and his group.[6] The investigation unmasked the close coordination between Omla and al-Abssi that had been kept from the pro-Damascus Secretary General of Fatah Al-Intifada, Abu Moussa, and by extension, from the Syrian authorities.[6]
Omla then reportedly ordered Abssi to leave the Western Beqaa, which is close to the borders with Syria, and head for refugee camps in northern Lebanon.[6]
In November 2006, the Palestinian security committee in Al-Badawi refugee camp in Tripoli handed over two members of al-Abssi's group to Lebanese military intelligence.[6] Al-Abssi was reportedly infuriated and decided to break with Fatah Al-Intifada and establish his own Fatah Al-Islam group.
In November 2006, Fatah al-Islam set up a headquarters in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon. The group seized three coumpounds in the camp that had belonged to the secular Palestinian militant group, Fatah al-Intifada.[3] Al-Abssi then issued a declaration saying he was bringing religion back to the Palestinian cause. [3]
The official spokesman for Fatah al-Islam is Abu Salim.[7]
Fatah al-Islam allegedly has about a half dozen Palestinian members.[2] The bulk of its membership is said to made up of Syrians, Saudis, and other Arab jihadists who had fought in Iraq, as well as approximately 50 radical Lebanese Sunnis.[2]
The Syrian ambassador claimed that the leaders of the group were mostly Palestinians, Jordanians or Saudis, and that perhaps a "couple of them" were Syrians.[8]
According to Reuters, Fatah al-Islam's primary goals are to reform the Palestinian refugee camps under Islamic sharia law, and to target Israel.[9]
Several news organizations have suggested that Fatah al-Islam has connections to al-Qaeda. Some reports even claim Fatah al-Islam is part of the al-Qaeda network. Abissi has stated that the group has no organization ties to al-Qaeda, "but agrees with its aim of fighting infidels."[10] Fatah al-Islam statements have appeared on Islamist Web sites known to publish al-Qaeda statements.[10]
Syria's ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, responding to Lebanese claims that Syria is a sponsor of Fatah al-Islam, told Reuters that several of the organization's members had been jailed for three or four years in Syria for connections to al-Qaeda, and that upon their release they had left the country. Ja'afari also said that, "If they come to Syria, they will be jailed," and that, "They are not fighting on behalf of the Palestinian cause. They are fighting on behalf of al Qaeda.".[8]
On May 23 2007, the 22-member Arab League issued a statement "strongly condemn[ing] the criminal and terrorist acts carried out by the terrorist group known as Fatah al-Islam," adding that the group has "no relation to the Palestinian question or Islam."[11]
On December 7, 2006, Le Monde reported that a top UN official had been informed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) representative in Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, of a plot by Fatah al-Islam to assassinate 36 anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon.[12][13] PLO security agents later confronted the group, arresting six of them. Four were later released while a Syrian and a Saudi Arabian were handed over to the Lebanese military.[13]
Lebanese authorities have accused the organization of being involved in the February 13, 2007 bombing of two minibuses that killed three people, and injured more than 20 others, in Ain Alaq, Lebanon,[4] and identified four of its members as having confessed to the bombing.[9] They have also stated that the group is a front for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon.[4] Both Fatah al-Islam and the Syrian government denied the charges.[4]
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Main article: 2007 North Lebanon conflict |
On May 19, 2007, a police search was mounted for suspects in a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli. Gunmen made off with $125,000 in cash in the robbery.[7]
According to Ashraf Rifi, the Lebanese Interior Security Forces chief, the bank robbers were traced to an apartment in Tripoli which turned out to be an office for Fatah al-Islam.[5]
The armed militants at the office resisted arrest and a gunbattle ensued.[5] A three-day standoff between security forces and militants at the apartment ended on 23 May, after the last Fatah al-Islam militant at that location blew himself up.[14]
Robert Fisk reported that while some of the group that had robbed the bank were cornered in an apartment block, others had holed up in the Nahr el-Bared camp north of the city.[15] Under a 1969 Arab accord, the Lebanese army may not enter the Palestinian refugee camps.[16]
The militants seized Lebanese army positions at the entrance to the Nahr al-Bared camp, capturing two armored carriers.[7] Security officials also reported that the gunmen had opened fire on roads leading out of the camp to Tripoli, and ambushed a military unit, killing two soldiers.[7]
The attacks by Fatah al-Islam killed at least 27 Lebanese soldiers, 15 Fatah al-Islam militants and 15 civilians,[16] injuring another 27 Lebanese soldiers and over 40 civilians.[17] Lebanese forces fired artillery barrages against militants in the camp.[16]
In response, the Lebanese army brought in reinforcements and on May 20 began a steady barrage of artillery and heavy machine gun fire in an attempt to hit militant positions that Fatah al-Islam had occupied inside the Nahr al-Bared camp.[7]
On May 20, a spokesperson for Fateh made an official statement to the WAFA Palestine News Agency affirming that the "so called Fateh al-Islam" is neither part of, nor linked to, the Fateh organization or the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He further mentioned that this group had launched several attacks against Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and called upon Palestinian refugees to "isolate this emerging group".[18]
The PLO representative in Lebanon, Abbas Zaki also met with official bodies in Lebanon to officially inform them that the group is made up of "extremists" and is not linked with Palestinian agenda.[18]
On May 21, Zaki and other PLO officials attempted to negotiate a ceasefire to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in the camp.[19] While the Lebanese army had been sending tank and mortar fire into the camp in pursuit of Fatah al-Islam, some 30,000 civilians were trapped inside, and conditions had rapidly worsened.[17] A handful of the wounded were taken out but it was impossible to get outside help to many others.[17] At least 8 refugees were killed and 60 others wounded.[19]
Palestinian civilians from the refugee camp were finally able to flee the fighting after Fatah al-Islam declared a unilateral truce on May 22, and the exodus continued on May 23.[20] Fatah al-Islam is still inside the camp, and says that if it is attacked, it will fight to the death.[20]