Fatah al-Islam Claims Responsibility for North Attack

Fatah al-Islam Claims Responsibility for North Attack

Mohamad Shmaysani Readers Number : 178

02/06/2008 The Lebanese National News Agency distributed a statement attributed to the "Fatah al-Islam press office" which it received by fax. The statement claimed responsibility for the bomb attack on a Lebanese Army Intelligence office in north Lebanon on Saturday, which claimed the life of a soldier. According to the statement, scores of people were killed and injured in the attack that "was carried out to avenge the Nahr al-Bared" Palestinian refugee camp battle in the summer of 2007. "They thought that we were broken, our flag was lowered and our determination was weakened. They are mistaken," the statement said. In the summer of 2007, the Lebanese army bravely fought a long war in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon against the Fatah al-Islam militant group. The group was involved in the brutal killing of Lebanese Army soldiers, prior to the war and of the Ain Alak bombing that killed and injured Lebanese civilians. For its part the Islamic Action Front, headed by prominent Sunni cleric Sheikh Fathi Yakan, condemned in a statement the "wicked aggression against the Lebanese army in the north, which left soldier Ousama Hasan martyred. We also condemn the attempt to attack a Lebanese army checkpoint near the Ain-el Hilwe refugee camp in Sidon." The Front warned against a scheme to destabilize the situation in Lebanon and an Israeli conspiracy under preparation to foil the Doha agreement that ended the Lebanon crisis. The Lebanese daily As Safir, citing information obtained from security circles, said military and security apparatuses, particularly north and south of the country, have been instructed to go on alert in an effort to counter "possible sabotage operations carried out by terrorist rings in certain areas" of Lebanon. The information coincided with reports obtained by the Lebanese intelligence and other security leaderships as well as the command of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) about preparations underway by terrorist rings in some areas and in Palestinian refugee camps for operations targeting "some UNIFIL patrols." Meanwhile, authorities were trying to pin down the identity of the would-be suicide bomber that was killed by the Lebanese army over the weekend in the southern refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh. One press report, citing Lebanese medical sources, said the examinations conducted showed that the Jund al-Sham (Army of the Levant) member was in his early thirties and was neither Lebanese nor Palestinian.