Ekhlaas member Abu al-Bara’ al-Shami uploaded this video as proof that sincere Muslim youth are fighting solely to protect their religion and coreligionists in Tripoli. I don’t think it proves his point at all. In fact, the video suggests something else: the young men are relishing a chance to play superhero. That doesn’t mean they [...]
Archive for the ‘Lebanon’ Category
Proof that Sincere Sunnis Are Fighting in Tripoli, Lebanon
Posted: 16th July 2008 by Will McCants in Lebanon, MotivationsTags: Lebanon, Salafis
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Lebanon that is. Over the past few days, there has been fighting between the Jabal Muhsin and Bab al-Tabbana neighborhoods that has killed a handful of people and injured dozens. The former is predominantly Alawi and the latter is Sunni. The clash has prompted confused speculation on Ekhlaas. No one is sure who is fighting [...]
Prospects for Jihadis in Lebanon
Posted: 15th June 2008 by Will McCants in LebanonTags: Lebanon, Palestinian camps
Mahan Abedin has a revealing interview with Omar Bakri Muhammad in Asia Times Online. Omar Bakri was the head of al-Muhajiroun, a Jihadi group in the U.K. Soon after the 7/7 attacks, he left the U.K. for his home country of Lebanon, where he settled in Tripoli and now directs the Iqra Islamic Trust. Since [...]
Fatah al-Islam Leader Threatens Hezbollah, U.S.-Friendly Sunnis
Posted: 9th June 2008 by Will McCants in Hezbollah, LebanonTags: Fatah al-Islam, Hezbollah, Lebanon
Shakir al-`Absi, the fugitive leader of Fatah al-Islam, has issued his second audio statement since the defeat of his organization at the hands of the Lebanese Army last year. In it, he claims that the U.S. knows that it cannot directly break the “power” (shawka–a favorite Jihadi term) of the Sunnis in the Middle East, [...]
Jihadi Operations in Northern and Southern Lebanon
Posted: 3rd June 2008 by Will McCants in Lebanon, UncategorizedTags: Fatah al-Islam, Lebanon
On Saturday, an Ekhlaas member asked, “Have Jihadi operations returned to striker the Crusader Lebanese Army?” His proof that it might be so are two pieces of that day’s news: There was an explosion at the intelligence headquarters of the Lebanese Army at Abdeh in northern Lebanon. The army killed a Palestinian suicide bomber at [...]
Bin Laden Statement Prompts Speculation on AQ Strategy in Palestine (Part 3)
Posted: 24th May 2008 by Will McCants in Israel, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, StrategyTags: Aqaba, Eilat, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Levant, Palestine, Strategy, Syria
In the final installment of the series, we’ll look at a piece of analysis from Ekhlaas member Abu Hamza 2005 titled, “A Modest Reading of al-Qaeda’s Strategy in the Levant [bilad al-sham]“. Abu Hamza begins by referring to Bin Laden’s 2007 statement, “To Our People in Iraq.” The statement, according to Abu Hamza, indicates that [...]
Lebanon in the Mouth of the Dragon: Why Aren’t the Salafis Fighting?
Posted: 17th May 2008 by Will McCants in Hezbollah, LebanonTags: Hezbollah, Islamic State, Lebanon, Salafis
Ekhlaas member al-Sarim al-Shami (“the Stern Shami”) asks: Why aren’t the armed Salafi groups entering the fight in Lebanon? He is particularly critical of their religious leaders, who are sitting on their hands. Sarim acknowledges, as I wrote a few days ago, that some Ekhlaas members endorse this tactical neutrality in order to prepare for [...]
Mitchell Prothero of U.S. News and World Report gives a shout-out. This paragraph is right on target: But while such groups have received little support from Lebanon’s Sunnis in the past, their humiliating defeat last week by Hezbollah and the tensions that led to the clashes already had Beirut’s urbane and unarmed Sunni population looking [...]
New Issue of Jannat Released
Posted: 15th May 2008 by Will McCants in Hezbollah, Jihadi journals, Lebanon, Palestinian TerritoriesTags: Fatah al-Islam, Hezbollah, Jannat, Jihadi journals, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories
The May issue of the Jannat (“Paradise”) Journal has been released. The monthly journal is a collection of short news stories on the global jihad and excerpts from online Jihadi discussion forums. If you haven’t been following the latest goings on in the jihadosphere, this is a good place to look to get caught up. [...]