Posted on 09/27/2004 4:20:06 PM PDT by Nepalis
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The alleged top al-Qaida operative in Lebanon who was captured in a security operation that broke up a terrorist network died of a heart attack Monday, hospital and security officials said.
Ismail Mohammed al-Khatib, who was in his early 50s, was hospitalized in the morning after suffering a cardiac arrest, but died from a second attack in the afternoon, said officials at Bahanes Hospital, 18 miles outside Beirut.
An Interior Ministry statement said al-Khatib suffered from "a breathing problem" on Sept. 21 and was treated by a doctor and given the "appropriate medication." His sickness recurred Monday after which he died of a "massive" heart attack, the statement said.
Al-Khatib was one of two top operatives of al-Qaida's organization captured by Lebanese authorities Sept. 17 along with 10 other suspects. The other one was Ahmed Salim Mikati.
At the time of the arrest, Lebanon's top prosecutor called al-Khatib "the head of al-Qaida organization in Lebanon" and said he and Mikati were planning simultaneous bombings of the Italian and Ukrainian embassies in Beirut. Both countries are part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq (news - web sites). They also allegedly planned to assassinate employees in Western embassies in Lebanon and wanted to attack Lebanese security and judicial targets.
Al-Khatib was also suspected of trying to recruit fundamentalists to carry out attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. Mikati had been in contact with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is the most wanted militant in Iraq, to arrange recruitment, officials said.
Shortly after news of al-Khatib's death spread, about 300 residents of his hometown of Majdal Anjar in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley staged a demonstration.
Protesters briefly blocked the highway linking the Lebanese capital of Beirut with Syria's capital, Damascus, near the Masnaa border point, witnesses said.
The demonstrators smashed windows of shops in the area, the witnesses said. Lebanese and Syrian troops deployed in the area and reopened the road late Monday.
Prosecutor-General Adnan Addoum said Mikati was behind other crimes in Lebanon, including an attack on a McDonald's restaurant in Beirut in April 2003, as well as attacks on U.S. and British interests last year. Mikati has been condemned to death in absentia by a Lebanese military court.
Wah wah wah WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Awwww....thanks for playing. Next time, don't let a Mossad agent administer your heart pills.
I suspect natural causes.
I also believe in the tooth fairy.
Poor bastard. Bad heart at such a young age. Cholesterol must have been through the roof.
Or else, he might have been wound up a little too tight.
But I'm leaning towards the rests between the beatings being a bit too brief.
alot of terrorists seem to be having heart attacks these days. must be a stressful job.
..I just can't shed a tear for the S.O.B.
"The alleged top al-Qaida operative in Lebanon who was captured in a security operation that broke up a terrorist network died of a heart attack Monday, hospital and security officials said."
Does this mean there will be no virgins in paradise?
Dead... or escaped?
Isn't that "mediterranean diet" supposed to be really healthy or something?
This smells. I want to see his DNA in the form of his head mailed to Quantico for DNA analysis.
Dude has two heart attacks and 300 protestors show up. First car battery must have not been enough huh?
seems they are taking a lesson from the russians
Well now, isn't that just a darn shame. ...and in the prime of life.
There is a certain ambiguity in that usage of "appropriate." OTOH, cyanide cures everything.
How else can you protest a heart attack?
Paradise is filled with houries. If he was a good moslem he is in paradise attended by the houries for eternity.
I believe allah's generous reward to this warrior who died of "natural causes" will be one goat, two old drunk whores and half a can of shlitz. warm.
Breathing problem (read--head submerged in water).
Great!! Finally, no 72 virgins for a martyr's death!
Another Islamofascist al Qaeda scumbag stops wasting Oxygen.
I hope his heart attack was induced by the sight of a pig and a very dull knife.
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