Factionalism at Ain al-Hilweh delays handover of “Prince of Al-Qaeda” to LAF
The capture of Abdel Rahman Awad, the elusive Fatah al-Islam fugitive, is being delayed due to the delicate politics that govern life in the sprawling Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp where he is thought to be hiding, Palestinian sources have told The Daily Star.
Lebanese authorities have issued a warrant for Awad”s arrest for his alleged involvement in a series of deadly bombings which targeted the army in Tripoli over the summer. The militant, who is known as the "Prince of Al-Qaeda" for his ties to international Islamist networks, has also been linked to a suicide bombing in Damascus in September.
Security forces have asked their Palestinian counterparts, who are responsible for law and order in the camp, to capture Awad as quickly as possible, but despite promises that action will be taken no substantial progress in bringing him to justice appears to have been made.
The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) held a meeting with senior Palestinian figures last week in which the military accused the militant of holding the inhabitants of the camp "hostage." But Awad has supporters inside the camp, where there is talk of a fatwa (religious edict) binding Islamist groups to protecting him. But the imam of Al-Quds Mosque in Sidon, Sheikh Maher Hammoud, has issued a fatwa of his own calling for Awad”s surrender.
A senior Palestinian source told The Daily Star that while the major political parties in the camp were in agreement that Awad should be handed over as soon as possible, the opposition of armed splinter groups has made such a decision politically sensitive.
"There is so much politics among the parties involved," the source said. "Otherwise, why would we have this delay?"
Secular Fatah officials in the camp are said to fear a collapse in support if they hand over Awad, a Palestinian, to Lebanese security forces and are trying to build cross-party support for his arrest with religious parties rather than risking instability by acting unilaterally.
The source said this approach meant that the prospect of serious unrest in the camp over Awad”s potential arrest was unlikely. "All the major parties in the camp are in favor of his capture or surrender," the source said. "There are a few Islamist splinter groups who disagree, but I don”t think they will dare to stand in the face of the main parties."
The source also said that he believed it was unlikely that the Lebanese Army would launch a Nahr al-Bared-style assault on the camp. "A military incursion into Ain al-Hilweh is unthinkable." he said. "I don”t think this would help – it would only complicate the situation."
He said that the problems of locating Awad were reason enough to take a military strike off the agenda.
"The army don”t even know where he is – you can”t rule out that he has already left the camp," the source said.
He added that Palestinian leaders also considered military action unlikely.
"The main parties know that the army won”t come into the camp," he said.
Lebanese military analysts also doubt that a full-blown operation to capture Awad will be launched. Retired LAF General Elias Hanna, who now teaches political science at Notre Dame University told The Daily Star that there were major differences between Ain al-Hilweh and Nahr al-Bared that make the military option unlikely.
"It”s not like Nahr al-Bared," he said. "If you are fighting in an urban area you need to use artillery. But the people inside the camp have nowhere else to go – there is no second camp like Beddawi [a Palestinian camp near Nahr al-Bared] for them."
He said the location of the camp also made a military operation unlikely: "Ain Al-Hilweh is in the middle of Sidon, not far outside the city like Nahr al-Bared. It”s a totally different context."
Meanwhile new information has come to light regarding the modus operandi of Fatah al-Islam. The confessions of a prisoner in Lebanon, Hussam Salim Maarouf, published in As-Safir newspaper, said that the group had been trained to attack the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese military.
He also claimed that the group had planned to fire Katyusha rockets into northern Israel. Working from an explosives factory hidden in a house in Ain al-Hilweh, Maarouf said that he had built bombs "to be exported later to anywhere Al-Qaeda wants."
According to As-Safir”s account of Maarouf”s testimony, Fatah al-Islam had strong links to other militant groups operating in the region, particularly Al-Qaeda in Iraq, with whom he was in contact via the Internet.
The publication of Maarouf”s confession is the second time that evidence gathered from Fatah al-Islam detainees has appeared in the public domain in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Al-Mustaqbal, a newspaper owned by parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, published statements that linked the militant group with senior Syrian intelligence officials.