Word: fatah
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Anti-Saddam hard-liners have lately seized on the extremist Ansar al-Islam as the organizational nexus that ties al-Qaeda to Baghdad. The group has existed in various forms since the 1990s, when its leader, an Islamic cleric named Najmadin Fatah who goes by the nom de guerre Mullah Krekar, took inspiration from Afghan mujahedin to launch a rebellion against the two feuding secular factions that divvy up Iraqi Kurdistan. Krekar, who carries a Norwegian passport, is a veteran of the mujahedin known for his ruthlessness. "He is not normal," says a Kurdish intelligence official. "He enjoys killing people...
...cloak of mystery. Reports of his demise, from a bullet wound (or wounds) in his Baghdad residence raised more questions than it answered. Did the 65-year-old Palestinian born Sabri al-Banna die by his own hand - as the Iraqis say - or was he killed, as his Fatah Revolutionary Council organization claims? For whom was he working while in Baghdad? (Abu Nidal may have proclaimed himself a champion of the Palestinian cause, but he spent most of his career freelancing for various Arab and even possibly some Eastern European intelligence agencies. Unlike, the Osama bin Laden generation of Islamist...
...Fahed wears fatigues and a stocking cap with narrow eyeholes cut into it. Around his brow is a white strip of cloth with black writing: KATA'IB SHUHADA' AL-AQSA, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah organization that vies with Hamas as the principal orchestrator of attacks on Israelis, including civilians. As the gunmen crouch behind their 15-ft. sand barricade, they shift their feet and their grips on their weapons, on some level wishing that the Israelis would come now and be done with it. "I'm prepared for martyrdom," Abu al-Fahed, 28, says...
...West Bank and Gaza, even a life sentence will only enhance Barghouti's stature among Palestinians. He continues to play a key role in Palestinian political life, and his approval is considered central to current efforts by PA leaders to secure a unilateral cease-fire among militants from Fatah and Hamas. He has also signaled his intention to campaign, from prison, if need be, for reelection to the Palestinian legislature in elections scheduled for early next year...
...Barghouti's incarceration is more likely to strengthen than diminish his claim to the mantle of Palestinian national leadership. He's already the most popular Fatah leader after the aging Arafat, and that popularity derives precisely from his willingness to challenge the PA's corruption and cronyism, and to forcefully stand up to both the Israelis and the Americans. Barghouti maintains he shares the goal of the U.S. and most Israelis of resolving the conflict by creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. But unlike them - although more in keeping with the sentiments on the Palestinian street...