Word: fatah
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...demonstration by anti-Gaddafi Libyans outside the country's London embassy three weeks ago was sparked by the hanging on the Fatah University campus in Tripoli last month of two Muslim fundamentalists, a veterinary student and a chemistry graduate. The pair had been in prison for four years but managed nonetheless to keep in contact with a Sunni Muslim student group opposed to what it regarded as Gaddafi's perversion of Muslim teachings. Gaddafi is said to have met with the two imprisoned students on more than one occasion in an effort to "convert" them...
Assad had long been looking for ways to clip Arafat, and the opportunity arrived last May: the P.L.O. chief unwisely elevated several unpopular commanders within Fatah, the paramilitary group that he established and that still accounts for about 80% of the P.L.O.'s military strength. Palestinian fighters, outraged by Arafat's appointments and by his growing preference for negotiation over combat, rose up in revolt. Encouraged by Syria, and in some cases backed by Syrian troops and artillery, the rebels gained strength through the summer and eventually forced the loyalists out of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and into Tripoli. When...
...over President Reagan's September 1982 peace initiative, which called for the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to be linked to Jordan, enraged Assad and convinced him that Arafat must be reined in. The chance came in May, when Arafat promoted several controversial commanders within Al-Fatah, the guerrilla group that he founded and that still accounts for about 80% of the P.L.O.'s strength. Fanned by Syria, the rebellion in Arafat's ranks spread during the summer. In June, the Syrian President expelled Arafat from Damascus; gradually, troops loyal to the P.L.O. chief were...
...city slept, Syrian artillery shells slammed into the refugee camps of Baddawi and Nahr al Barid on the outskirts of Tripoli. Three columns of attackers advanced on Arafat's forces, trapping the chairman and his men between the hills and the sea. The rebels included not only Fatah dissidents but guerrillas from Syrian-and Libyan-sponsored factions within the P.L.O. Though Damascus denied direct involvement, Syrian guns and tanks supplied the firepower while Syrian Defense Minister Major General Mustafa Tlas coordinated strategy with Abu Mousa...
...organizations that form the commando groups of the P.L.O., including Saiqa and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, are already loyal to Syria. If Rebel Leader Abu Mousa is able to defeat Arafat with Syrian backing, he will make a bid for control of Al Fatah, the Arafat-founded group that accounts for some 80% of the P.L.O.'s strength...