The
History Guy (2007)
North
Lebanon Conflict—(May 20, 2007- September
2, 2007): This conflict began in May,
2007, when the Lebanese Army began a siege of the
Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in order to drive out a
militant Islamic milita called Fatah Islam. The
resulting combat killed 158 Lebanese soldiers, 120
Fatah al-Islam militants and 42
civilians. This conflict, which came a year
after the destructive Israel-Hezbollah War, tested
the capacity of the Lebanese government to bring
violent militias under control. Most of the
fighting took place in the port city of Tripoli and
in the nearby Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, which is
home to thousands of Palestinian refugees.
Lebanon received military
support from the United States in the form of
military equipment and ammunition. As such, this
conflict can be considered a part of the larger
War
on Terror led by the
U.S. The Fatah al-Islam group is an al-Qaida
inspired armed militia which openly challenged the
authority of the Lebanese government. Fatah al-Islam ("Conquest of
Islam") formed in November, 2006 in northern
Lebanon, drawing members from the largely Sunni
Muslim Palestinian refugee community, as well as
from veteran foreign fighters from the
War
in Iraq.
Fatah al-Islam's leader, Shaker Abssi, is a
Palestinian who fought with jihadist forces in
Iraq, and who had connections to the late al-Qaida
in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.Shaker
Abbsi was sentenced to death by a
Jordanian military court in 2004 for his alleged
involvement in the 2002 murder of the American
diplomat, Laurence Foley, who was assassinated in
Amman, Jordan. The rise of Fatah al-Islam and other
Muslim Jihadist groups among the Palestinian
refugee community is indicative of the continuing
problems the Palestinian Liberation Organization
(PLO), has experienced since the formation of the
Palestinian Authority, the rise of Hamas, a rival
political organization opposed to Fatah, the
primary Palestinian party. In the decades prior to
the Oslo Peace Accords with Israel, Fatah and the
PLO claimed the support of the majority of
Palestinians. However, in the process of changing
from a liberation army to a governing political
party, Fatah (founded by the late Yasser Arafat),
lost the allegiance of many young Palestinians, who
looked to groups like Hamas and (to a lesser
extent), Fatah al-Islam for meaning and leaderhip
of a more fundamentalist religous nature. Also,
these fundamentalist Islamic groups advocate
continued war
with Israel, which Fatah
is moving away from. The violence began on May 20,
2007, when Lebanese authorities raided a Fatah
al-Islam safe-house in Tripoli, sparking a
gunbattle. The fighting spread to the nearby Nahr
al-Bared camp, where Fatah al-Islam was based. The
Lebanese Army quickly cordoned off the camp and
began a siege which ended in September, 2007, as
the defeated remnants of Fatah al-Islam attempted
to break out of the camp and were destroyed in
firefights with the Lebanese military. Copyright
© 1998-2007 Roger A. Lee; Last Modified:
09.15.07 "The
History Guy" is a Registered Trademark. Citation Lee,
R. "The History Guy: North Lebanon Conflict
(2007)" http://www.historyguy.com/north_lebanon_conflict_2007.htm 2007
Lebanon
Conflict--Wikipedia
article A
new face of Al Qaeda emerges in Lebanon
--International
Herald Tribune Profile:
Fatah
al-Islam--al-Jazeera
article Lebanon's
New
War(s)--From
Mobile Newsweek Lebanon:
Fatah Islam Fighters
Caught--From
the Associated Press, Sept. 15,
2007
Please cite this source when
appropriate: