Syria & The Neo-Salafis - The Lebanon Connection.

There has been a wide-spread belief in Lebanon and Iraq since late 2003 that leaders of many Neo-Salafi groups - by far the most violent and fanatic strain in Sunni Islam - are in close co-ordination with a mysterious "special branch" of the Syrian military intelligence. Some of these groups are being trained by this branch and sent to Iraq or Lebanon to fight in ways which serve the geo-strategic purposes of the Assad regime. It is said this is a continuation of a tactic which was first conceived in the 1970s by then Syrian President Hafez al-Assad , who died in June 2000 and was succeeded by his young son Bashar.

At first, Gen. Hafez developed a "production line" for Palestinian and Shi'ite suicide bombers to operate against Israel through southern Lebanon. It is claimed that, after the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Bashar (who in mid-2000 inherited the Alawite/Ba'thist regime), allowed "the special branch" to begin "producing" suicide bombers among young Sunnis in Syrian prisons and/or young Sunnis in Europe recruited to fight in Iraq. It is claimed that members of the "special branch" working in Syrian embassies in Europe usually pay $10,000 per recruit - from a special fund provided by the Shi'ite theocracy of Iran. Such recruits first have been sent to Syria, where they have been "brainwashed and trained", before moving to Iraq - now also to Lebanon.

Those recruited from Syrian prisons go through mainly similar treatment and are also being paid money from the same fund; but these young men's main incentive is the double satisfaction of no longer being tortured in Syrian jails and of being allowed to kill "enemies" before "going to heaven" through a suicide bombing. The ideology of both categories of recruits is Neo-Salafism. The mechanics are various types of combat - jihad (holy war) - and martyrdom (suicide bombing).

Poor and over-populated, some of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have become islands of lawlessness, bound to provoke new crises. Although most camps - housing many of the nearly 400,000 UN-registered refugees - are largely peaceful, security officials warn that the heavily populated ones have become dangerous havens for Neo-Salafis. Off limits to the Lebanese Army under a 1969 Cairo Agreement, the camps are governed by Palestinian factions which are often at odds with each other. Of most concern to Beirut have been the camps of Ain el-Helweh in the south and Nahr el-Bared in the north, scene of the current fighting.

An official at the Palestinian Human Rights Organisation in Beirut says: "The problem is that the main Palestinian factions are weak, they can't provide enough services to people and so they can't control them". Restrictions imposed by Beirut on the refugees, who are banned from many professions, have turned youths in the camps into easy recruits for Neo-Salafi groups. Warnings have come from Beirut and UN officials that weapons are flowing into the camps, allegedly across the Syrian border. Beirut says the Neo-Salafis are created and manipulated by Syrian intelligence agents with the aim of causing big explosions in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine.

Fatah al-Islam is a Neo-Salafi version of Fatah al-Intifada of Abu Musa, created in 1983 by the Syrian regime at Nahr el-Bared and other Palestinian refugee camps in the northern and north-eastern parts of Lebanon. Since 1983 - and even after the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in late April 2005 - refugee camps in the other parts of Lebanon have been off limits to Syria or to its allies because the mainstream Palestinian groups including the Fatah Movement have been particularly keen on maintaining their own control there.

The Syrian regime engineered the Fatah split in 1983 because of a conflict between Assad and Yasser Arafat, the legendary leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) who died in 2004. Abu Musa, promoted and manipulated by the Assad regime, broke away from Arafat's Fatah after PLO forces were compelled to withdraw from Lebanon following Israel's 1982 invasion of the country. But Arafat in 1983 managed to return to Lebanon - to Nahr el-Bared camp in the north - in 1983, which prompted Assad to produce Fatah al-Intifada under Abu Musa.

Shaker al-Absi, a Palestinian/Jordanian-born founder and head of Fatah al-Islam, was once part of Fatah al-Intifada and was sent to Iraq to be an aide to Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in a US air strike near Ba'quba (north of Baghdad) in June 2006. Absi was jailed in Syria for three years. He has been wanted in Jordan for the murder of a US diplomat, Lawrence Foley, in Amman in 2002. Not only is Absi an ex-convict in Syrian jails, but so are many of his associates in Fatah al-Islam who are not Palestinian. Another associate, Abu Huraira, is among the products of the Syrian intelligence's "special branch". (Rumours that Absi and others have been killed or seriously wounded after recent battles with the Lebanese Army are yet to be confirmed).

The hostilities between Absi's forces and the Lebanese army since May 20 have attracted the world's attention, leading White House spokesman Tony Snow to link Fatah al-Islam to al-Qaeda. Further proof of the links between Fatah al-Islam, the Syrian regime and al-Qaeda has been the role of Fathi Yakan, a prominent Lebanese Sunni militant in Tripoli who has repeatedly and publicly called on al-Qaeda "Central" of Osama bin Laden to be active in Lebanon. Yakan, a frequent visitor to Syria where he often meets with President Assad, has been among the most recent mediators between Fatah al-Islam and Palestinian groups backing the Lebanese Army's offensive. Yakan is also an ally of Hizbullah and is said to have long been working with the Syrian intelligence.

Fatah al-Islam was created in November 2006 at Nahr el-Bared as a splinter group from Fatah al-Intifada; but only a few of its members were Palestinian, with most of the others being from other nationalities. Immediately as it announced itself, it took over the offices and weapons of Fatah al-Intifada - and there was no fight from the latter. Fatah al-Islam militants arrested by the Lebanese authorities after their February bombing of two buses in a Christian part of Lebanon north of Beirut - where three Christian civilians were killed - confessed that they had been working for a "special branch" of the Syrian intelligence. More recently, Fatah al-Islam militants were caught by Lebanese security forces while robbing a bank in northern Lebanon. "To Fatah al-Islam, anything is allowed", says a Palestinian VIP.

According to Palestinian refugees who fled Nahr el-Bared to the Baddawi camp, also in the north, Fatah al-Islam not only resorted to bank robberies but imposed Neo-Salafi rules on the people in the camp - where its aim was to establish a Neo-Salafi "emirate". But its militants raped girls and robbed refugee families of food and medicines being supplied to Nahr el-Bared by humanitarian groups.

Since armed conflict began on May 20 between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam, the Fatah Movement, other PLO-recognised Palestinian groups and Hamas have all denounced the Absi gang, distancing themselves from it and labelling it "terrorist".

Veteran US reporter Seymour Hersh complicated matters further by appearing on CNN earlier this year to say Absi's group was actually the brainchild of US Vice-President Dick Cheney, and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams. He claimed it was created with the blessing of the Siniora government to serve as a counterweight to Hizbullah in case hostilities broke out with the Iran-sponsored Shi'ite group. Hersh added that Fatah al-Islam rebelled against the Siniora cabinet. This is a line which Hersh has been supporting for some time, claiming that Abrams, Cheney, and Saudi National Security Adviser Prince Bandar bin Sultan, were allied to fight the spread of Shi'ite influence in the Arab region, and co-ordinate a planned US attack on Iran. Part of their strategy, he claimed earlier in The New Yorker, was to strike at Hizbullah and to support Sunni militias in the Arab region to challenge Iranian power - a claim vehemently denied by Beirut and mainstream Sunni VIPs.

Hersh claimed Prince Bandar assured the US that Saudi Arabia will keep a close eye on the extremists who will be created in the anti-Iran plan, so they do not get out of hand, as in the case of bin Laden and his al-Qaeda in the 1990s, and be given just enough room to combat the Iranians. But none of the experts believed Hersh's story and he provided no evidence.

Since then, Syria and Hizbullah and their allies have been using the Hersh story to prove they had nothing to do with Fatah al-Islam. But in a televised speech on May 25 Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned the Lebanese Army against storming Nahr el-Bared and said many things which suggested he was with Fatah al-Islam.

In an article published on May 29, prominent Syrian political analyst Sami Moubayed said: "It would be wrong [for Hersh] to blame Saudi Arabia as a whole for such an adventure, especially since King Abdullah has worked relentlessly to find a solution to the gridlock in Lebanon but it is possible that some elements in the kingdom are supportive of the US plan, seeing Iranian influence as becoming too strong. That would explain creating Fatah al-Islam to combat Hizbullah, in the case of war between both parties. Hersh provides no evidence to his argument, however, and not many people in Lebanon are buying it, especially because it incriminates Siniora.

"Hersh is probably not correct when it comes to Saudi Arabia or Siniora. But he certainly may be correct when it comes to the US. Their record with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan speaks volumes about how far they are willing to go - with dangerous consequences for the entire region - to achieve their political ends. Perhaps Tony Snow should re-read US history in the Arab and Muslim world. That may provide answers to the phenomenon of Fatah al-Islam".

Other prominent analysts, however, stress that Moubayed lives in Syria and that it is impossible for him to issue with impunity any report to the outside media which may reflect negatively on the Assad regime.

Disarming Palestinian groups outside the refugee camps has been a priority for the Beirut government, besieged by political assassinations and bombings since the killing of Hariri. But initial talks with Palestinian factions were thrown off track last summer when war erupted between Hizbullah and Israel. Western officials, meanwhile, have been watching for links between the Islamist groups holed up in the camps and al-Qaeda, the Neo-Salafi organisation which has become trans-national.

Until recently attention had focused on two Neo-Salafi groups at Ain el-Helweh. The first, Usbat al-Islam, appeared on the US list of terrorist organisations after 9/11, and is thought to have sent fighters to Iraq. The second is Jund al-Sham, believed to have branches in Lebanon and Syria and allegedly involved in the storming of the US embassy in Damascus last year. Clashes were reported between the group and the mainstream Fatah movement at Ain el-Helweh in 2006. But it is the younger Fatah al-Islam, based at Nahr el-Bared, which is in the eye of the storm. (Al-Sham in Arabic means Syria). Al-Qaeda fi Bilad il-Sham is another.

In March the Lebanese security forces arrested four members of Fatah al-Islam, blaming them for the bombing of the two commuter buses in the Christian area of Ain Alaq. Since then, the security forces have arrested Fatah al-Islam militants in other parts of Lebanon, including Christian areas, such as the one arrested more recently in a hotel in Ashafiyeh. It has also been revealed that Fatah al-Islam militants had major financial resources, evidenced by their renting of expensive apartments in affluent parts of Tripoli and Beirut and possession of advanced weapons which are quite expensive.

A senior Lebanese military official on June 2 was quoted as saying Fatah al-Islam was well-trained and included fighters from Somalia, Yemen, Algeria, Syria and Europe, and that some of them may have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. Some of those killed were wearing suicide belts. He added: "Inside the [Nahr el-Bared] camp they can do anything because there's no government control and they can buy weapons. If you have money you can do anything".

Sultan Abul 'Ainain, head of the Fatah Movement in Lebanon, has said: "This is a gang and only 3-4% of its members are Palestinians. What they've done is an attempt to create a rift between the Palestinians and the Lebanese government". Without mentioning Syria by name, he said the power controlling Fatah al-Islam was "using us [Palestinians] as canon fodder for a big conspiracy with objectives way beyond Lebanon".

The Absi-Army fighting began on May 20, when Fatah al-Islam militants stabbed to death many soldiers while sleeping in their dormitory. Sa'd Hariri then said the safety of civilians left inside Nahr el-Bared was the main concern for the Army, adding: "They have waited, they have reinforced themselves, they are advancing slowly but surely and the civilians are going out". Hundreds of Army troops have surrounded the camp and sealed its outlets, only allowing civilians to leave. But Fatah al-Islam snipers on top of higher rise buildings inside the camp shot and killed many refugees while leaving, which forced those remaining inside to stop fleeing. Thus Fatah al-Islam was holding the whole camp hostage. On June 1, however, Army troops killed several snipers and forced the others to move deeper inside the camp.

There has been a lot of domestic and international concern over the Army's shelling of the camp and the threat to the civilian population. But there was no prospect of allowing Fatah al-Islam to get away. Hariri on May 31 reiterated: "They either surrender or the Army will deal with them like any other terrorist group". Hariri, an MP and leader of the Future Movement which is the largest bloc in parliament, insisted that the violence was linked to the Syrian regime, which he accused of wanting to undermine the Beirut government and the March 14 Forces. He said there was a direct relationship between the fighting and Syrian resistance to the international tribunal for the murder of his father. He said: "We are sure, we have evidence, we have beyond any doubt proof that Fatah al-Islam is directly in contact with Syrian intelligence". He said part of the evidence, relating to the group's involvement in the February bombing of the two buses in the Christian area north of Beirut, will be presented to the ongoing UN investigation into the murder of Hariri and other attacks in the country.

Damascus has denied all links to the Hariri murder and to Fatah al-Islam, saying some of its members were wanted in Syria. The FT on May 20 quoted officials close to Hariri as saying Fatah al-Islam had been planning to expand in and around Tripoli. Government sources later said the militants planned to blow up the bridges linking the north to the rest of Lebanon but they were surprised by the Army's resilience.

Tripoli and the heavily Sunni north of Lebanon are strongholds of Hariri's Future Movement, which was founded as a political vehicle by his father. Future has been accused in both the domestic and the international media of encouraging or at least tolerating militant Sunni groups in the north as a way of firming up its support and to counter Hizbullah, a charge which Hariri denies, saying: "The people who are Future Movement have nothing to do with these extremists".

Hariri asserts that the unrest in the north is aimed at undermining his movement, adding: "We believe that the way they want to destroy us is by creating a problem in the north". He says the opposition, which has speaheaded ongoing protests to bring down the Siniora government, is playing a "very negative role" in the current crisis.

Hizbullah's Nasrallah, the Lebanon representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, on May 25 said the Lebanese Army should not enter Nahr el-Bared, calling the camp a "red line". This was taken by the March 14 Forces as proof that Hizbullah was defending Fatah al-Islam as well as the Syrian regime and the Shi'ite theocracy of Iran.

There are concerns that a Chapter 7 decision on the UN tribunal could spark more political tension in Lebanon. Hizbullah has repeatedly warned the Beirut government against asking the UN for a Chapter 7 move, saying it would put the country under international mandate. Shaikh Na'im Qassem, Hizbullah's second-in-command, has said establishing the court under Chapter 7 would make it "a tribunal against Lebanon and not to try the Hariri killers".