Free Republic

A new Palestinian militant group whose members have been trained to carry out rocket-launching and bombing operations was reportedly formed in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh to carry out among others an attack on the Egyptian embassy. Al-Balad daily reported on Sunday that a Palestinian named Jamal Hamad formed the organization, which he named "Jihad movement for the victory of Gaza" with the assistance of Ghandi Sahmarani, a Lebanese wanted from the authorities on several terrorist charges. The newspaper said several militants from Jund al-Sham and Osbat al-Ansar have joined the new group. The militants have received training...

Beirut (dpa) - A shop which belonged to an Islamic preacher in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain Hilweh was blown up Wednesday, Lebanese police said. The explosion destroyed the shop, which sold mainly household goods, police said. The shop belonged to Sheikh Arfan Issa, of the Association for Islamic Welfare Projects, a pro-Syrian Lebanese group which recruits in Sunni working class districts of Beirut and Tripoli and in the Palestinian camps. The group are called Habashists. Their leader, Sheikh Nizar Halabi, was murdered, allegedly by the fundamentalist Osbat al Ansar, which is on a U.S. list of ``terrorist'' ...