Word: palestinians
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Much remains a mystery about Fatah al-Islam, the Palestinian-led Sunni Muslim fundamentalist faction that sprang up six months ago and is at the center of Lebanon's latest fighting. What is known, however, indicates that the group based near the northern coastal city of Tripoli is a product of past Middle East conflict, a manifestation of present unrest in Lebanon and an ominous sign of future turmoil throughout the region...
...Islam. This time the split appeared to be rooted in the growth of al-Qaeda and the terrorism unleashed after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, another indication of extremism's viral spread since Sept. 11. The original Fatah as well as the initial splinter group always espoused a secular Palestinian state, but Fatah al-Islam not only preaches an ultra, Salafist brand of Islam, but appears to have at least logistical links with al-Qaeda. In 2004, a Jordanian court convicted al-Absi and nine others for an al-Qaeda plot that included the 2002 assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence...
...provocations include alleged involvement in February bus bombings in a Christian enclave, recent bank robberies and attacks on Lebanese soldiers. Government security forces are waging a military operation intended to flush out the group's 200 or more fighters, which include Saudis, Syrians, Yemenis, Moroccans as well as Palestinians. Yet the bombardment of a Palestinian refugee camp risks broadening the conflict to include other mainstream Palestinian factions as well as Hizballah - which, though a Shi'ite group at odds with al-Qaeda, is nonetheless closely allied with Sunni Palestinian factions like Hamas. With Lebanon balanced on a knife-edge since...
...That warning even applies to Hamas's most senior official, Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh. After a barrage of Palestinian missiles flew out of Gaza into southern Israel during the past week, the Israelis were in no mood to go lightly on Hamas. On Monday, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh declared in an interview that "no one" in Hamas's leadership was "immune from a strike." Hamas took the threat to heart. Spokesman Ayman Taha also urged militants to stop using cars and gathering in open places where they could be spotted by Israeli aircraft circling over the Gaza strip...
...Fatah al-Islam is headed by Shaker al-Absi, a veteran Palestinian guerrilla fighter who originally trained in the Syrian Air Force. He is believed to have fought American forces in Iraq and was linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed a year ago. Al-Absi was sentenced to death in absentia by a Jordanian court in 2004 for the murder of American diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman. His fighters reportedly number 200 to 500 and are drawn from several Arab countries...