Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
BEIRUT- UPI — Syria sent Fatah al-Islam elements to Lebanon to cause havoc — at least that’s what a Lebanese Christian leader is claiming.
Samir Geagea, an anti-Syrian politician who heads the Christian Lebanese Forces, accused Damascus of sending the Islamic militant group’s leader, Shaker al-Abssi, to Lebanon to “pull the Palestinians into a confrontation with the army in all the Palestinian refugee camps.”
Fatah al-Islam has been involved in armed clashes with the Lebanese army since Sunday in and around the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the northern port city of Tripoli, in which many refugees have been caught in the cross-fire.
In a news conference Wednesday, Geagea noted that Abssi, a Palestinian, was serving time in prison in Syria on terrorism charges. He asked why the authorities would release him when Islamic groups, including peaceful members of the Muslim Brotherhood, receive long prison sentences and even the death penalty in Syria. “They sent him to Lebanon,” he said.
“The Palestinians have nothing to do with this battle, in which we and the Palestinians are battling against Fatah al-Islam,” he said. “This is a conspiracy against the Lebanese and Palestinians to cause havoc.”
The Christian leader insisted if the army and security services continue to “eliminate” this group, which he described as criminal and terrorist, “the Iraqi winds will not reach Lebanon.”
