Newly Born Jund Al Sham Group Brands Christians, Shiites Infidels



A new group calling itself Jund Al Sham, Arabic for Soldiers of Damascus, has made its debut in Sidon's refugee camp of Ein El Hilweh by establishing 'impenetrable' strongholds in four residential districts of the biggest Palestinian shantytown in Lebanon. It proclaimed Christians and Shiites 'infidels.'

The group is lead by a Palestinian from Tripoli's Nahr El Bared refugee camp who goes by the name of Abu Youssef Sharkieh, a former activist of the late Palestinian terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal's Fatah-Revolutionary Council, An Nahar reported on Saturday.

Jund Al Sham takes a so hard-line stance that makes the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad look moderates within the Palestinian spectrum. It also detests Yasser Arafat's Fatah and the PLO and denounces Lebanon's Hizbullah for its ties with Iran, according to An Nahar.

"Members of the group do not allow their women to marry Shiites. They also do not recognize Christianity, which they label as Crusade," An Nahar said. Sharkieh, the group's leader, is called by his followers the "legitimate Emir."

Jund Al Sham's military wing is headed by Imad Yassin, a dropout from Abu Mohjen's Osbat Al Ansar which has long been blacklisted by the United States as a terrorist faction linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

The new group is said to be receiving financial assistance from prominent Muslim clerics in the Gulf. Its leaders install the most sophisticated security detectors at their homes and have set up mortar guns in the neighborhoods under their control.

An Nahar said Jund Al Sham's behavior could invite a forceful crackdown by Arafat's loyalists as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.



Source:

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&84EC768CC7456214C2256EBF002669A1



Artcile in Arabic:

http://www.tayyar.org/files/revuedepresse/AR/0406/040626annahar_ainelhelwe.htm

-----------------------------------------------------------

For more about Lebanon: www.lgic.org

For more about Syrian Baath www.2la.org/syria



Lebanon,

Brief History:

Lebanon is a small country at the Eastern cost of the Mediterranean Sea. The Nature of Lebanon, being distinguished from mostly desert-countries around, along with the impact of the civilizations that inhabited Lebanon through thousands of years reached its peak in the second half of the 2Oth century. Prosperity, Free-Economy and the “Most Civilized and Democratic” country of the region were titles of Lebanon then.

However, this did not last. The major Arab-Israeli conflict has found in Lebanon a landing which to move the fight. Syrian, Palestinian and Israeli forces overtook the Lebanese territory moving their fight, since the 1970’s to the neutral country that was too small to defend herself. Arms and funding were being funneled into Lebanon while several countries, Syria, Iran, Israel, Lybia and Palestinians were sponsoring guerillas trying to take place in a battle that is not on their own land. Great destruction and hundreds of thousands of casualties (mostly Lebanese civilians) transpired in Lebanon. All the while, relatively minor events were going on the neighboring countries: Syria, Jordan Egypt, Israel and Palestinian territories. The UN Security Council issued several resolutions regarding Lebanon which were issued, but never enforced.

Lebanon Now:

1.The Syrian army occupies most of Lebanon, including the main airport. It harbors and all vital agencies with 30,000 troops and about 20,000 intelligence agents (that is equivalent to sending 5 million troops to occupy the US). Syria detains hundreds of Lebanese in its prisons without charges, and refuses to implement UN Security Council resolution No. 520 that calls for pullout of non-Lebanese troops from Lebanon.

2.Palestinians-There are approximately 400,000+ ungoverned Palestinians still living in camps in Lebanon and harboring armed guerrillas and without any regard for the Lebanese people or country (This is equivalent to placing 50 million refugees in the United States at one time).

3.Israeli troops withdrew from the area of south Lebanon on May, 2000, which they had occupied for 22 years. Israel holds a Lebanese man in an Israeli prison without charges.

4.The Lebanese Authorities are paralyzed by the Syrian régime who control a proxy government in Lebanon terrorizing and brutalizing the Lebanese people.

5.The Lebanese people are being forced to leave their country due to economical disaster caused by the political crisis and Syrian illegal labor-force in Lebanon. Approximately 35% of the Lebanese population left the country since 1990, when Syrian troops completely captured the capital Beirut..

Lebanon, the country that used to be called “Switzerland of the East”, experiences now Ruined Economy, Pro-Syrian Totalitarian Regime and major Violations of Human Rights

For details: www.lgic.org

------------------------------------------------------