NEFA Foundation: Fatah al-Islam Claims Death of Leader, Endorses Terror Financing Through Bank Robberies
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated two new communiqués from the Al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon and Syria. On November 29, Fatah al-Islam issued a statement condemning “Syria’s entrance into the public arena against Fatah al-Islam… If this organization is wiped out, then no other force will remain in Lebanon besides the force of [Hizballah]. This stands in accord with the Iranian policy aimed at controlling the region.” On December 8, the group distributed a second statement claiming, among other things, that its commander Shaykh Shakir al-Absi has been missing and is presumed dead following a failed bid to join Al-Qaida in Iraq. According to the statement, al-Absi and a group of aides left their former base in Lebanon for Syria “in order to allow their wounds to heal, to reestablish the [communication] channels that were cut off during the war, and to rebuild the organization… [Al-Absi] started contacting the brothers from the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), through people who were well-known to the ISI, and was also trying to reach the brothers in Afghanistan—though not with much success.” Fatah al-Islam was also specifically insistent on the legitimacy of committing bank robberies as a financing tactic: “we say, relying on Allah, that stealing money from the infidels, from the usurious banks and the institutions which belong to the infidel regimes and states, is a legal thing which Allah has permitted us to do. This money is being seized from them and instead directed towards jihad and the mujahideen in order to fulfill their needs, to buy equipment etc.”
English translations of the communiques can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.
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