Fatah Al Islam
The chief of a small Palestinian Islamist group has denied allegations that it is linked with the Al Qaeda terror network and that it was responsible for deadly recent bombings in Lebanon.
"Our movement is not allied with any regime, nor with any organization on earth," Fatah Al Islam leader Shaker Abssi was quoted as saying in Friday's edition of L'Orient Le Jour daily.
Earlier this week, a Lebanese government official said that members of an Al Qaeda-linked Palestinian splinter group had admitted carrying out the February 13 deadly Lebanon bus bombings.
Lebanese interior minister Hassan Al Sabeh and police chief General Ashraf Rifi also said this week that Fatah Al Islam was an alias for Fatah-Intifada, a radical Palestinian group that they said works closely with Syrian intelligence.
Sabeh said that four Fatah Al Islam members carrying Syrian nationality had been arrested and a fifth wanted suspect was still at large.
Fatah Al Islam swiftly denied any involvement and accused the government of preparing an offensive against the dozen or so camps in Lebanon, which house more than half of the country's nearly 400,000 Palestinian refugees.
Abssi, who is holed up with armed supporters in the Nahr Al Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon warned that "if an offensive is launched against us, our response will be fierce."
And he challenged the authorities to present proof of the group's involvement in last month's bombing.
"Since the birth of our movement was announced, we have been under tight surveillance by the security services," he said. "I challenge them to prove that we have had any encounters with the people that are accused or that they are really part of our movement."
Abssi denied accusations by Syrian interior minister Bassam Abdel Majid that the Palestinian militant has been jailed in Syria because of links with Al Qaeda and for planning terrorist attacks.
"I was jailed in Syria, but not over links with Al Qaeda as he has claimed," Abssi said.
"I was jailed because I was accused of having planned to carry out an operation in the [Syrian] Golan [territory occupied by Israel], as well as of having carried and smuggled arms into Palestine [Israel]," he said.
MET
"Our movement is not allied with any regime, nor with any organization on earth," Fatah Al Islam leader Shaker Abssi was quoted as saying in Friday's edition of L'Orient Le Jour daily.
Earlier this week, a Lebanese government official said that members of an Al Qaeda-linked Palestinian splinter group had admitted carrying out the February 13 deadly Lebanon bus bombings.
Lebanese interior minister Hassan Al Sabeh and police chief General Ashraf Rifi also said this week that Fatah Al Islam was an alias for Fatah-Intifada, a radical Palestinian group that they said works closely with Syrian intelligence.
Sabeh said that four Fatah Al Islam members carrying Syrian nationality had been arrested and a fifth wanted suspect was still at large.
Fatah Al Islam swiftly denied any involvement and accused the government of preparing an offensive against the dozen or so camps in Lebanon, which house more than half of the country's nearly 400,000 Palestinian refugees.
Abssi, who is holed up with armed supporters in the Nahr Al Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon warned that "if an offensive is launched against us, our response will be fierce."
And he challenged the authorities to present proof of the group's involvement in last month's bombing.
"Since the birth of our movement was announced, we have been under tight surveillance by the security services," he said. "I challenge them to prove that we have had any encounters with the people that are accused or that they are really part of our movement."
Abssi denied accusations by Syrian interior minister Bassam Abdel Majid that the Palestinian militant has been jailed in Syria because of links with Al Qaeda and for planning terrorist attacks.
"I was jailed in Syria, but not over links with Al Qaeda as he has claimed," Abssi said.
"I was jailed because I was accused of having planned to carry out an operation in the [Syrian] Golan [territory occupied by Israel], as well as of having carried and smuggled arms into Palestine [Israel]," he said.
MET
posted by Subrosa at Saturday, March 17, 2007
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