Fears of Islamic fundamentalist inside Lebanese camp

Middle East Features

Jun 12, 2008, 15:39 GMT

Ain al-Hilweh camp, Lebanon - Tension was obvious at the entrance of the Palestinian refugee of Ain al-Hilweh camp between the Lebanese army and members of fundamentalist groups holed inside the camp after repeated clashes for the past two days. Lebanese army soldiers wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests were on full alert at the entrance of the Palestinian camp in southern Lebanon that houses around 75,000 refugees. The latest clash took place late Wednesday when a fundamentalist gunman was killed and a Lebanese army officer wounded in a shootout near the entrance of the camp which is located at the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon. Security sources in south Lebanon said the incident occurred when three assailants in a white Renault Rapid opened fire on the soldiers as they tried to make their way through an army checkpoint at the western entrance to the camp. They said army troops returned fire wounding one gunman, Issa Qiblawi. The second gunman was arrested while the third fled, the sources said. But Qiblawi died of his wounds soon afterwards. 'The vehicle drove past the checkpoint and when troops fired warning shots, they were shot at and an exchange of fire developed,' a witness said. A Palestinian official at Ain al-Hilweh said the three attackers were members of the Islamic grouping Jund al-Sham and Issa Qiblawi was the brother of Sheikh Qiblawi, killed in 2004 in Iraq while fighting for al-Qaeda. The shootout came almost two weeks after a would-be suicide bomber was shot and killed by Lebanese soldiers as he tried to detonate an explosives belt at a checkpoint on the edge of Ain al-Hilweh. A Palestinian official has said the suspect killed on May 31 was most likely a Saudi citizen. Members of extremist groups believed to have links with al-Qaeda have settled in the Palestinian refugee camps across Lebanon in recent years, particularly in Ain al-Hilweh. Many fear that members of the Sunni fundamentalist group Fatah al- Islam, who fought fierce battles against the Lebanese army in northern Lebanon, have fled to Ain al-Hilweh and are believed to be behind the attacks on the Lebanese army who are usually positioned outside the 12 Palestinian camps scattered across Lebanon. The refugee camps are off limits to Lebanese authorities with Palestinian factions in charge of security inside the shanty towns. Jund al sham, who are currently holed up in one sector of the camp have close links with Usbat al-Ansar, Arabic for the Partisans' League, which is on the US list of terrorist groups. Munir Makadeh, a PLO security official inside Ain al-Hilweh told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa that 'Ain al-Hilweh will not be a second Nahr al-Bared.' The Lebanese army crushed the al Qaida-linked Fatah al Islam during fighting that lasted three months in 2007. Fatah al-Islam, (Conquest of Islam) is a radical Sunni Islamist group that was first formed in November 2006. It has been described as a militant jihadist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda. It became very well known in May 2007 and June 2007 after engaging in combat against the Lebanese Army in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The US classified the group as a terrorist organization on August 9, 2007. Many experts on terrorism fear that the Palestinian camps in Lebanon are becoming a safe haven for Sunni fundamentalist groups. According to former Lebanese army general Hisham Jaber, and terrorism expert there has been 'a rise in Sunni fundamentalist groups with links to al-Qaeda inside the Lebanese camps over the past few years.' According to Lebanese security sources, Usbat al-Ansar was initially led by a charismatic Palestinian, Hisham Sharaydi. Under Sharaydi, the group co-operated with the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. In the climate created by Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he believed Sunni and Shiites Muslims should work together against 'their common enemy Israel.' But in 1991 Sharaydi was assassinated and his successors broke the Iranian connection to follow an explicitly Sunni form of militancy with close links to al Qaida. In 2002, Jund al-Sham - literally the Army of Greater Syria - broke away to form an even more radical splinter group. Those Islamist grups not accept the borders the region inherited from European colonialism. For them, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine form one Muslim land. Many anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders believe that Jund al-Sham and Fatah al Islam have ties with the Syrian intelligence, because they think 'the Syrian regime benefit from any instability on the Lebanese terriories.' But experts believe that these fundamentalist groups with 'their links to Iraq and radical Islamist networks elsewhere in the region, see themselves as part of the much bigger battle between Islam and the West.'