Word: damascus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Lebanese troops remain locked in a bloody three-week confrontation with militants from the Fatah al-Islam faction in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp. Lebanese officials say that the recently formed Fatah al-Islam was sent into Lebanon by Syrian military intelligence to cause instability, a charge Damascus strongly denies. Lebanese security officials also maintain that pro-Syrian Palestinians of the PFLP-GC have taken sides with Fatah al-Islam in Nahr al-Bared...
...fighting continued, it was common to link Fatah al-Islam to the Syrian regime, and to see the group as a tool in the hands of Damascus to foment chaos in Lebanon and head off a U.N. tribunal that may prosecute Syrian officials for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. But there is a longer-term worry that goes beyond any possible Syrian connections-that Fatah al-Islam is one of a group of armed, extremist factions that have been spawned in the triangle of political instability from Baghdad to Gaza to Tripoli. Those groups include Iraqi...
...Fatah al-Islam, the group battling the army, has dominated much of the news in Lebanon since it first declared its existence late last year, splitting from Fatah al-Intifadeh, a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction that is headquartered in Damascus. Lebanese authorities have accused the group of a bombing in the Christian town of Ain Alaq in February during which three people were killed. They also believe Fatah al-Islam members carried out at least three bank robberies, the latest on Saturday when $120,000 was stolen from a bank in the coastal town of Amioun, south of Tripoli...
...Lebanon's government would like us to believe Fatah Islam started the fighting there on Sunday on the orders of Damascus. I hope they know better. Whether Syria is providing tactical help or not, at the end of the day Fatah Islam is the Syrian regime's mortal enemy. If the fighting were to somehow lead to an all-out civil war, Syrian stability will be undermined. Lebanon has had a Sunni fundamentalist element in the north for more than 25 years. As I've written before in this column, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood used northern Lebanon as a rear...
...Fatah al-Islam has dominated security news in Lebanon since it first declared its existence late last year. The Sunni extremist group said it had split from Fatah al-Intifada, a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction which is headquartered in Damascus, and that its goal is to fight for the Palestinian cause. But divining the real identity of Fatah al-Islam has become mired in Lebanon's political crisis and the answer to what the group's real agenda is depends on whom you ask. The anti-Syrian March 14 coalition, which forms the backbone of the Lebanese government, believes that...