Al Qaeda In Lebanon

Michael Totten reports:

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Al Qaeda has moved into Lebanon.

Fatah al-Islam terrorists in the Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp (which is an urban ghetto in Tripoli, not a tent city) are, reportedly, mostly not Palestinian. No one has suffered more from Lebanon’s worst fighting since the civil war ended than the Palestinian civilians of Nahr al-Bared. After decades as second-class non-citizens living in dejection and squalor, they are now human shields in a battle between foreign terrorists and the host country.

Lebanon’s freshest and most vicious of enemies have, if reports are correct, arrived from battlefields in Iraq via Syria. Their relationship with the Syrian state and Al Qaeda is murky and hard to sort out, but they do seem to have connections of some kind to both.

An Nahar reports that mosques there now are dual-use. They are places in which to pray. They are also armed camps. They are also, possibly, terrorist targets. Suicide bombers reportedly detonated themselves at the Thawra mosque. Perhaps someone ignited himself a little too early. Maybe the keepers of that mosque were hostile to Fatah al-Islam. I do not know.

The Lebanese Army is clearing the “camp” of terrorists, booby-traps, car bombs, and even domestic animals rigged with explosives. The government says there will be no negotiated truce with the enemy, that their crimes will be punished with the death penalty either in combat or later in prison. It has been years, decades really, since the government and army of Lebanon have shown this kind of resolve.

Lebanese troops are in the process of clearing the Palestinian camp, which is really an urban ghetto, not a tent city. It may get ugly and the Lebanese military has said that it has disrupted a terror plot to cause devastation rivaling the 9/11 attacks. I think that might be hyperbole, but if the terrorists sought to kill hundreds or thousands, that is still a massive mass casualty attack in a country whose population is about half that of New York City.

The Lebanese military has been pounding the camp since Friday. I believe that the Lebanese are actually carrying out their own version of the Hama rules.

UPDATE:
Fatah al Islam's third in command has been killed by the Lebanese military and the Lebanese government says that the only way the fighting will end is if Fatah al Islam surrenders and turns over their weapons. Fatah al Islam's remaining leaders have rejected the Lebanese demands.

The Fatah Islam leader killed, Naim Deeb Ghali, who is also known as Abu Riad, was the third-in-command of the group, Lebanese security officials said.

Abu Hureira confirmed that Ghali was killed Friday, but would not say whether he was a senior Fatah Islam official, referring to him only as "a brother."

Sunday's army artillery fire appeared directed at militant positions deep inside the camp, indicating the military was advancing further inside.

There was no way to tell exactly how deep the army had advanced, because the area had been sealed off and journalists were kept away.