DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: FATAH AL ISLAM ON ITS DEATHBED?!?

Fatah al-Islam in death throws -- Palestinian official

BEIRUT, June 5 (KUNA) -- The Secretary of the Fatah Movement in South Lebanon, Colonel Khaled Aref said Tuesday several Palestinians, who had joined the renegade Fatah Al-Islam group in North Lebanon, had abandoned that group and rejoined Fatah and the group was in its death throws.

Aref also stressed that the Palestinian armed units inside the Ain Al-Helwe refugee camp, had resumed their former duty of enforcing law and order in order to prevent the Jund Al-Sham activists from making any more trouble for the Lebanese army.

Aref, who was speaking to the Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA), said all Palestinian law and order units numbered some 250 officer and private in the Nahr Al-Bared camp and that the soldiers were doing their best to keep law and order there.

"Some Palestinians, who were misled into joining the Fatah Al-Islam group, have abandoned it and joined Fatah once again," Aref said. He added that some people pretend to defend Islam and that Fatah Al-Islam had nothing to do with Islam or with the authentic Fatah Movement.

"The Islamic faith does not allow senseless killing," he said.He added that Palestinian Liberation Organization units were now in charge of law and order in Ain Al-Helwe after the bloody clashes with the army.

He stressed that all Palestinian groups inside the Ain Al-Helwe camp had met Tuesday to try to put an end to the clashes there.

He added that the Lebanese army had not demanded that the Jund Al-Sham lay down their arms. But common sense implied that they should do so and abide by the instructions of the camp's elders and spiritual leaders.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army is tightening its grip on the Nahr Al-Bared camp to force the fighters there to lay down their arms and give themselves up to the authorities.


Pertinent Links:

1) Fatah al-Islam in death throws -- Palestinian official