Hamas destroys al-Qaida group in violent Gaza battle

[Jan Klimkowski]

How are the ruling elites going to spin this?

It appears that those evil al-Qaida-loving Hamas terrorists have just taken out an "Al-Qaida" insurgency in Gaza.

Over in Berlusconi's kiddie villa, Tony Blair must be spluttering into his chianti: "But but... Hamas are the bad guys...."

Whilst Netanyahu, the neocons and the Fatah stooge, Abbas, consider some diabolical revenge to distract the masses....

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...s-al-qaida