Free Republic

SNIPPET: "I. When considering the matter of jihadis online, remember that most of what we think we know is based on analyses of the comments made by an handful of vocal activists. The vast majority of jihadis online, be they on forums or social networking sites[i], say nothing. Skillful translations and insightful analyses by definition tell us little about this potentially lethal yet silent majority."

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...