Victory in Lebanon

For the past three months, the Lebanese Army has been battling an al-Qaida-affiliated militant group holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese Army has finally achieved victory -- at a cost of 158 troops in those three months. Proportionate to their relative national populations, 158 Lebanese troops represent the same percentage loss as 11,850 troops would be to the USA.

Camp falls & the Lebanese are celebrating victory at last
Sunday, 2 September, 2007 @ 5:06 PM



Beirut - Eyewitnesses have reported that the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon has fallen and the army appears in complete control and is now chasing the fleeing militants.

There are conflicting reports about the whereabouts of Shaker el-Absi the leader of the militant Fatah al-Islam terrorist organization. One eyewitness reported that he was captured by the army, but other eyewitnesses reported that he was able to escape.

Salim Taha, the last known spokesman of Fatah al-Islam has already surrendered to the Lebanese army according to army sources. Many other militants were captured according to the same sources.

The latest reports revealed that the army today killed 32 militants , but lost five soldiers to sniper fire, raising to 158 the total number of troops killed in the conflict.

Currently there is a huge traffic jam north of the camp. The Lebanese troops have set up road blocks for checking the vehicles for fleeing Fatah al-Islam militants.

Even in the Lebanese capital Beirut, over an hour's drive to the south, officials searched vehicles at military checkpoints set up on major streets. Other checkpoints went up along the coastal highway linking the north with Beirut, causing traffic jams.

State television reported that Lebanese residents of nearby villages, armed with guns and sticks, fanned out to protect their houses and prevent militants from melting into the local population. Smoke billowed from a field near the camp where residents said the army set fire to bushes to deny militants a hiding place.

The Lebanese residents in north Lebanon are celebrating the victory of the army. Fireworks are everywhere in north Lebanon in celebration. Troops were showered with roses and rice , in appreciation of their courage and sacrifices.

As we publish this article Lebanese are firing celebration shots in the air at news that the army finished off Fatah al-Islam, while others are waving the Lebanese flags and chanting as convoys of cars honk their horns.

The army was not ready yet to formally declare an end to fighting in the camp, large parts of which have been destroyed by army bombardments in the siege.

Fighting between the army and Fatah al- Islam militants broke out on May 20 and the Lebanese have been anxiously waiting for this day to celebrate victory.

Update - 6:00 PM Beirut time:
Army sources have reported that the troops were able to capture additional 24 militants of Fatah al Islam this afternoon. This raises the number of militants that were captured today to 40.

Update - 6:10PM Beirut time:
The Lebanese army has issued an appeal to the Lebanese citizens urging them not to fire any shots( in celebration of the victory ) to show respect to the Lebanese army troops that fell victim during the fight.

The army has also called on the Palestinians to stay away from the Nahr el Bared camp and not totry to return to it under any condition, since it is totally destroyed and will be rebuilt by the Lebanese government as soon as possible . Similar appeals were made by the Palestinian leadership in Lebanon.

Update - 6:25PM Beirut time:
The National News Agency has reported that the army has captured Shaker el-Absi the fugitive leader of the militant Fatah al-Islam terrorist organization. There were many conflicting reports about the whereabouts of Absi and many have reported that he was able to escape.

Picture: Lebanese soldiers flash the "V" for victory signs as they patrol an area near the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese army has taken full control of the refugee camp where it has besieged Islamist militants for the past three months

Call Nancy Pelosi - her buddy Bashar needs a good talking-to

So Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria, has this brother-in-law, and he's in charge of Syria's intelligence services, right? And it turns out, according to a Lebanese guy arrested in Beirut, this brother-in-law has been using a terrorist organization to destabilize Lebanon -- you know, asssassinate a few politicians, start a battle in a refugee camp that leads to the deaths of more than 100 Lebanese soldiers, that kind of thing.

Beirut - An alleged leader of the Fatah al-Islam terrorist network has testified to interrogators that the group is linked to the head of Syria's intelligence apparatus Maj. Gen. Assef Shawkat, the brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad.

Ahmed Merie, a Lebanese citizen arrested late in May at a Beirut hotel, also testified to military examining magistrate Rashid Mezher that four members of Fatah al-Islam gunned down legislator Pierre Gemayel on Nov. 21 in east Beirut's suburb of Jdaideh, according to the daily al-Moustaqbal.

Another pan Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, published a similar report.

The report said Merie testified to Mezher during interrogation that he was the "liaison officer" between Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker Abssi and Shawkat.

Can't Nancy Pelosi call her good friend Bashar al-Assad and straighten this out? I'm sure his brother-in-law didn't KNOW it was evil and a violation of international law to set up a terrorist organization in a neighboring country and help it assassinate that country's lawmakers and destabilize its government.

Sadly, we'll now find out if the UNIFIL commander is right

The operating environment for UNIFIL in southern Lebanon has become dramatically "non-permissive."

At least five Spanish UN peacekeepers were killed and three others wounded in an attack on a UNIFIL patrol in southern Lebanon on Sunday afternoon.

The incident took place near Al-Hijam, south of Marj Ayoun, on the eastern part of the border with Israel. UNIFIL forces were on route to the site of the attack to investigate.

A senior Lebanese official in Beirut said a mine may have caused the explosion. But another security official based in southern Lebanon said the explosion was caused by a bomb that was placed on the side of the main road where the UNIFIL APC was travelling.

The attack late Sunday afternoon was the first ever against UNIFIL forces in the region.

No organization claimed responsibility for the attack, but forces affiliated with al-Qaida were cited as the possible initiators of the attack, an analyst speaking on Israel Radio said moments after the explosion.

Previously, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, the UNIFIL commander was quite confident about his command's effectiveness.

'In my area of operations there is no open hostile activity, and we also do not see a rearmament happening,' he said. 'We are physically patrolling every corner of southern Lebanon, and if there were a bunker [system], we would have found it'
- Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano

Forgive the pun in poor taste, but it looks like that assessment has been blown all to Hell. Forgive the silly pun, but Gen. Graziano has a rocky road ahead.

Gen. Graziano also told the Post that his soldiers are willing to put their lives on the line in the cause of peace.

As a testament to the way Graziano envisions his mission, perhaps, are his remarks that his men believe strongly enough in their mission of preventing hostilities in southern Lebanon that they are willing to sacrifice their lives on Israel's behalf.

"Our job is to defend peace, and it is a value-based job for soldiers," he explained. "There are people who will offer their lives for higher values like peace, security and stability."

Sadly, we will now find out whether his assessment of his troops' commitment is correct, or whether their home countries will pull them out to put their safety ahead of the peace, security and stability they are supposed to maintain.

I'm here to help you kill Jews -- but first...

The old joke about the oxymoron, "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help," applies many-fold to the situation in Lebanon and Gaza. In January 2006, the Palestinians elected Hamas based on its reputation for cleanliness (from corruption), efficiency (in providing social services), and militancy (in resistance to Israel). By throwing out the corrupt Fatah regime, it was thought, the new Hamas government would be able to demonstrate that it knew how to run a country and put it on a solid footing for the struggle with the Zionist entity.

About six months later, a wanted terrorist named Shaker Youssef al-Absi showed up in Lebanon and offered to the Fatah leadership in the Palestinian refugee camps his services and those of his 60 or so followers to fight the Israelis, who at the time Fatah feared might attack the refugee camps to pressure the Palestinians in Gaza to release kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit. The Fatah leaders welcomed al-Absi, not asking, if Syria viewed him as a dangerous terrorist, why he wasn't in a Syrian prison or extradited to Jordan to stand trial for murdering a U.S. diplomat. And soon al-Absi's cadres multiplied -- and started to worry their hosts.

Al-Absi, who is wanted in Jordan for involvement in a 2004 assassination of a U.S. diplomat there, spread out increasing numbers of recruits to several Palestinian camps - about 120 in Beirut's Bourj el-Barajneh, 60 in Beddawi in the north and 150 in Nahr el-Bared.

Abu Mohammed and another Fatah Uprising official, Mahmoud Doulla, told The Associated Press that their leaders were so impressed with al-Absi's selfless dedication to the Palestinian cause that, at first, they ignored warning signs of other trouble.

"We weren't of the same ideology," explained Abu Mohammed. "They followed a more puritan kind of Islam, you can say fanatic Islam. ... They were ready to kill disbelievers."

Abu Mohammed and Doulla said they were concerned when they noticed al-Absi and his men were hostile toward allies of Fatah Uprising, such as the Syrian government, Lebanon's Shiites and the militant Shiite group Hezbollah.

When Fatah Uprising officials in Lebanon alerted their superiors in Damascus that al-Absi's men "were behaving strangely," they were swiftly dismissed and told the group was in Lebanon for the "struggle" and to fight the "Zionist enemy," said Abu Mohammed.

Al-Absi's forces grew quickly. At the Shatilla camp, what started as 20 militants reached 100 during last summer's Hezbollah war with Israel, Abu Mohammed said.

Over time, it became clear that al-Absi wasn't going to fight Israel until he took on the Fatah leadership first.

Al-Absi's relationship with Fatah Uprising showed its first public sign of cracks last Nov. 23, when Palestinian and Lebanese security forces raided an apartment occupied by his gunmen in the Beddawi camp in northern Lebanon.

In the ensuing battles, a Palestinian security man was killed and two of al-Absi's militants were wounded and handed over to Lebanese security by the camp's Palestinian security. Al-Absi was angered that Fatah Uprising did not protect the men or protest their handover to Lebanese authorities.

On Dec. 5, Fatah Uprising leader Saeed Moussa ordered al-Absi and his fighters to leave his group's bases in the Shatilla and Bourj el-Barajneh camps. Al-Absi withdrew to the Beddawi camp.

In a new ultimatum three days later, Abu Moussa gave al-Absi 24 hours to leave Beddawi.

"Where am I going to take 400 men in 24 hours? Throw them in the sea?" Abu Mohammed quoted al-Absi as telling a Fatah Uprising official. Other Palestinians confirmed the remark.

The following day, al-Absi seized Fatah Uprising positions and weapons in Nahr el-Bared, where he had regrouped his fighters - and he announced the creation of Fatah Islam.

Now Fatah al-Islam has called down the wrath of the Lebanese Army on the Palestinians, with thousands fleeing the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp and thousands more trapped there in the crossfire. The Islamic fundamentalists of Fatah al-Islam are clearly willing to defer the battle against the Zionist enemy until they remake the Palestinian refugee camps -- and possibly all of Lebanon -- in their Salafist image.

At the same time, Hamas in Gaza has been willing to launch Qassam rockets at Israeli civilians and stage sporadic attempts to kidnap more IDF soldiers. But they've also been willing to direct attacks at Fatah members in Gaza, on an escalating scale. It's rapidly reaching a point where the leadership of Fatah can no longer surf along above the turmoil: the attacks are aiming higher and higher in their eschelons.

After sundown Monday, gunmen, apparently from Hamas, laid siege to the house of Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the senior Fatah official in northern Gaza. They then dragged him outside and killed him, security officials said. Medics said he was hit by 45 bullets.

Al-Jediyan was a top aide to Gaza Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan and al-Jediyan's brother was also killed, apparently in the same shootout.

Fatah spokesman Maher Mikdad harshly denounced the killing and pledged revenge.

"What is this, if not a war," he said.

Fatah called on its members to target all Hamas political and military leaders.

"What is this, if not a war?" What, indeed? How about a purge?

The Oslo Accords demonstrated that Fatah could not be trusted to maintain purity of ideology and purpose against Israel. Even though they never implemented their obligations toward peace, and perhaps only undertook those obligations to mask their intention to build a base for destroying Israel at a future date, still the fact remains that they did undertake those obligations. For the true believers of Hamas and of the Salafist movement, this indicated that Fatah was a more immediate danger to the struggle against Zionism than Israel itself. Only a Palestinian society purged of such wobbly pragmatists could find the unity and strength to take on Israel.

Thus the Palestinian communities in Gaza and in the refugee camps of Lebanon needed to be purged, to be brought under the complete control of orthodox and unwavering Islamists. Any accommodation with Fatah was tactical, a brand of taqqiya toward unbelievers in the West to attempt to free up frozen finances and toward unbelievers in Fatah to attempt to co-opt them.

The Palestinians must choose one path or another before there is any point in pursuing talks with Israel. If the Palestinians choose Hamas and Fatah al-Islam, then talks with Israel will be pointless in the first place; if they reject Hamas and Fatah al-Islam, there may be a chance for peace.