DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: FATAH AL ISLAM JIHADISTS IN LEBANON WERE EITHER MOVING TO OR COMING BACK FROM IRAQ

Shadow of Iraq jihad falls over Lebanon
By Tom PerryReuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Jihadists battling the Lebanese army in north Lebanon were either on their way to or from Iraq, Palestinian political sources believe, a sign that the shadow of Sunni militancy there has started to fall over Arab countries nearby.

Many of the Fatah al-Islam militants had originally come to Lebanon to train for Iraq, the main front for al Qaeda in its battle with the United States, a Palestinian source in Lebanon said. Some had already fought there.

Although Iraq remains the preferred destination for jihadists, experts on al Qaeda say the group may be sending fighters out of the country to open new fronts.

That prospect alarms Arab states, which in the 1990s battled Islamist insurgencies fuelled by the return of Arab jihadists from war in Afghanistan. Arab governments were quick to send Lebanon military aid after fighting erupted on May 20.

"According to its doctrine, al Qaeda tries to open fronts in a number of places," said Montasser al-Zayyat, author of a biography on Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's second-in-command. "Units will be dispersed from Iraq, going here and there," Zayyat told Reuters.

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The other day it was reported that many of the Fatah al Islam jihadists were Moroccan...


Pertinent links:

1) Shadow of Iraq jihad falls over Lebanon