Hamas destroys al-Qaida group in violent Gaza battle

[---]

Fighting between Islamist groups leaves 21 dead after brief declaration of 'Islamic emirate' by foreign-led followers of Bin Laden


* Peter Beaumont
* The Observer, Sunday 16 August 2009
* Article history

An al-Qaida inspired group which briefly proclaimed "the birth of an Islamic emirate" in the Gaza Strip included a Syrian national who was believed to be the head of its military wing, Hamas confirmed today after the group was overrun and its leader killed by police.

There have been repeated allegations from Israel and the Fatah-led Palestinian leadership in the West Bank that al-Qaida affiliates, including foreign militants, are operating in Gaza with the knowledge of Hamas, the Islamist group which controls the coastal strip.

The confirmation by a Hamas interior ministry spokesman that a Syrian national of Palestinian descent, named as Khaled Banat but also known as Abu-Abdullah al-Suri, was among those killed in fighting in the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt between police and Jund Ansar Allah ("Warriors of the Companions of God") will renew that controversy.

Jund Ansar Allah's leader, Sheikh Abdel-Latif Moussa, also died in the fighting, which began on Friday. He was apparently killed when gun battles began again after dawn today.

The group promoted an ideology following Osama bin Laden, posting his statements as well as terrorist training videos on its website, and had called for Gaza to be ruled by strict sharia law. It attempted to launch an attack on the Nahal Oz border crossing into Israel earlier this year, involving about 10 militants in trucks and on horseback, some wearing suicide vests.

The disclosure that a Syrian national was among the dead contradicts earlier claims by Ismail Haniya, who heads Gaza's Hamas government, that there were no non-Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Around 15 members of the group and six Hamas policemen were killed in the fighting around a mosque. Another 40 were arrested.

Jund Ansar Allah emerged in November 2008 when it released its first communique which sought to emulate al-Qaida, though no direct links have been proven. It is one of a number of jihadi groups to have appeared.

A Hamas spokesman accused the group of carrying out several recent attacks in the territory including bombings of a café, hairdressing salon and music shop.

Hamas sources said they were also behind the bombing of a wedding of members of the Dahlan family, a Fatah-affiliated clan, one of whose members, Mohammed Dahlan, was recently elected to the Fatah Central Committee. In addition, the group had threatened to burn down the Strip's internet cafes and called for people on the beaches to dress more modestly.

Although Hamas claimed that the group's leader was mentally unstable, Sheikh Moussa had managed to attract scores of young men, some of whom had styled themselves after jihadi fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq, wearing their hair and beards long and even affecting the same dress.

The group's website, which shows videos of the preparations for the attack on Israel, much of it focusing on men on horseback or loading horses with mines, makes clear that Jund Ansar Allah allied itself closely with the ideals of global jihad as opposed to Hamas, which is more closely focused on Palestinian nationalism.

The emphasis on horseback operations is believed to signify a desire to emulate the warfare of the period of the Islamic conquests. The attack on Israel was reportedly under the command of Abu-Abdullah al-Suri or "Abdullah the Syrian", the leader of the group's military wing.

Jund Ansar Allah is not the first hardline group allied to global jihad to emerge in the Gaza Strip. Neither is it the first time accusations have been levelled that al-Qaida allied groups have infiltrated the region.

In an interview last year with London-based newspaper al-Hayat, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president who heads the rival Fatah movement, accused Hamas of helping al-Qaida to enter the area.

"I can say without doubt that al-Qaida is present in the Palestinian territories and that this presence, especially in Gaza, is facilitated by Hamas," he said. Hamas denied the claims.

What is not clear, however, is why Hamas took so long to crack down on the group after the Nahal Oz attack. The Hamas authorities appear to have cracked down on other jihadi groups as they have emerged, including the Army of God, allied to the large Dogmoush clan, which was implicated in the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston in 2007.

In large part, the recent moves against Jund Ansar Allah appear to be have been motivated by Hamas's efforts to impose its authority, not least following the group's criticism of Hamas and for its flaunting of weapons despite a ban by Hamas on such demonstrations.

The conflict with the group is also underpinned by more complex ideological and religious considerations. Hamas – in theory at least – says that it believes in leading by example rather than compelling people to abide by sharia law, unlike the jihadis who believe that morality should be enforced.

Perhaps more important is the differing political outlook. The jihadi groups believe in establishing a global caliphate by violence while Hamas sees itself as a "resistance" organisation whose ambitions, by and large, are limited to the Palestinian struggle, a movement capable of sustained truces with Israel. Hamas has also condemned al-Qaida bombings in other countries.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhari described the views presented by the group as "ideological deterioration" but insisted that despite their ideology they were acting alone. "This group has no connection to any outside organisation," he said. "No element or group has the authority to take the law into its own hands, and those who do not respect that will be dealt with by the security establishment."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/1...amists-al-qaida

[mastermg]

Interesting. Id like to hear your point of view on this Nik:)

[mastermg]

Hey I just found out this is bullshit its not Al-Qaida as the Jewmedia would like us to believe. Some Saudi in Gaza (Hes not even a Wahabi, hes a Salafi) opened a mosque and Hamas wanted him to register it under its strict regulations. He refused and battle broke loose. Hamas is worse than I thought it was.

[---]

Quote:Interesting. Id like to hear your point of view on this Nik:)

Well, ok. My first reaction was that it ostensibly was a positive piece on Hamas - in terms of it's affect of the public consciousness amongst those 'supporting the war on terror' in their heads..

Unless it was being floated for a pretext for future incidences of Israeli aggression in the occupied territories to be sold to the international press as 'Israel targets Al-Qaida in Palestine' I couldn't see why the Israeli Intelligence agencies would willingly misreport such a story..

On the surface, it wouldn't appear the story lends much service to Israel - if anything it goes further to legitimise Hamas in Western opinion...aside from the fear of militant Islam that we are told they espouse.

I do lament that they seem very keen of political indoctrination and would say that as a 'government' I am entirely suspicious of their impact on education issues. Clearly, it is a state of occupation and things operate differentlybut I think trying to use Qassam rockets against F16's is doomed to failure.

It is the job of the rest of the international community to contest and remove the US veto on sanctions. hough even then the Israelis have still amassed a formidible army and nuclear warheads. I do not think the UN is a friend of Israel per se..I think Israel acts as leverage tool amongst the disunified elites fighting over who gets what in the carve up that's coming. Israel cannot fit into a 'world governance organ' unless that in where it's headquarters are to be built.

If the second report you cite is the truth (source?) and not the fabrication, then, it may be a case of Hamas themselves giving a false account..after some gangsterism. or alternatively a not so simple case of press sensationalism.

As for Hamas, I see them much akin to the provisional IRA of the late 20th century. Potentially there's a higher degree of actual unmurked resistance against apartheid Israeli tyranny as oppose to simple gangsterism in Hamas, than there was in the IRA fighting against the UK. By then the IRA had become a self sustaining gangster cartel with scant regard for any of the former armed resistance against UK monarchical tyranny that it was in it's initial inception.

I think people quite probably voted for Hamas leadership in Gaza because there was no other viable alternative, in terms of organisation to maintain civil infrastructure and as a armed resistance to Israeli aggression.

I would go further to suggest that Hamas - as the chosen and supported group by Iran too - made sure there was no other chance that any other form of social organising or grass roots political alternative would emerge too...by way of internecine gangsterism.

That Hamas made the decision to rule against allowing or facilitating suicide attacks against Israel whilst still under embargo...successfully speaks in favour of them politically..and highlights that the Israeli power structure is not actually looking for conflict resolution but rather is singlemindedly on the fascist agenda of 'greater israel' and has never deviated from it.

I think there are 'moderates' in Hamas that can create a proper leadership for the people in Gaza and work with sympathetic elements within the International community..but I also think that there are a significant amount of gangsters in Hamas that would wish to keep things as they are as the war is very profitable for them and gives them an inordinate amount of power within Gaza over the populace..much the same as a significant proportion of the IRA leadership in Catholic areas of Northern Ireland during the time I ascribed. And none of us know to what extent there may be possiblity of a fifth column within the structure..considering the claims of it's creation being encouraged from the dark by Mossad as they tried to destabilize Fatah..we shouldn't neccessarily think those channels have dried up. You got to wonder what else sort of management may be present in their structure when considering Ahmendinejad and his eschatology and UNwo 'new agey' scripted speeches but then it was/is the CIA attempting to fuel a colour revolution in Iran reportedly too.. so, at that point the shadowy complexity and 'playing both sides towards a greater goal' elements to it kick in imo.

I do expect Israel to maybe go up in flames at some point though..I think unless they..the banking families..can successfully accomplish getting the pipelines they have planned to route through it. It seems clear that there is a destruction contingency built into the construct, as a 'nation'..the next wave of persecution against jews, if needed. That would be probably see thermonuclear conflict in , at least, the region..and the cloud from it would fuck everyone. Either way, Palestine keeps getting trounced. :(

The only way I see out of it is if the Israeli population revolt against their leaders who, after all, are serving different masters at the end of the day..but judging from pretty much every Israeli I've ever met, there is skance chance of that as, apart from small tiny marginalised pockets the hostile siege mentality is deeply deeply ingrained. It doesn't really matter that Haaretz models itself as the voice of 'free press' and criticism against crimes of it's state..It's the only media organ within Israel that I see as having any potential in affecting the public consciousness there but they are largely ineffective, cowed to the state and overall offer only mild platitude to actual human rights ergo a state controlled pressure valve for alternate opinion rather than anything that actually is pressing for social change in Israel and that's a big shame.

And as it goes, I do NOT write the Vatican out of this either.

jmo

[mastermg]

Thanks for that, I agree with that too.
This article calls it a radical group, but atleast not al-Qaeda. There's a bit more to it than what CNN has to say.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/15/...shes/index.html

I was kind of wrong though. Salafi and wahabi are pretty close, but it doesn't make it al-Qaeda.

[---]

Quote:There's a bit more to it than what CNN has to say.

thanks for the link. Please elaborate on what you mean here...

[mastermg]

Based on what I was told, the sheikh wasn't conforming to Hamas's politics that they incorporate with their buildings such as mosques and schools. Since politics and religion go hand-in-hand, not corforming to Hamas's ideologies was seen as radical resistance. This ended up with Hamas blowing up the sheikh's house.

[---]

declaring an Islamic emirate in Gaza was always going to have pissed them off..

[mastermg]

Yeah, another article says he supported Al-Qaeda.

Quote:Ynetnews reported local Salafi leader Abdul Latif Musa told worshipers Gaza is an Islamic emirate. He faulted Hamas for not being sufficiently strident in pursuing the imposition of Islamic law in the Gaza Strip and said he was casting his support to al-Qaida, the Israeli news Web site said.

"We belong to al-Qaida and our leader is Osama bin Laden," Musa was quoted as saying.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/14/Ham...84681250284993/

If thats true, I dont get how anyone would still want to follow the mythical Osama.