The leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip blew himself up during a shootout Saturday with security forces that killed 24 people and posed one of the biggest challenges to Hamas since the group seized power in Gaza two years ago.
Members of the group Jund...
Members of the group Jund Ansar Allah, surround their leader Abdel-Latif Moussa, knwon also as Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi (in red) as he speaks during Friday prayers in Rafah.
Photo: AP
SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World
The fighting erupted Friday when Hamas security men surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egypt border where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up.
Flares lit up the sky overnight as Hamas machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades slammed into the mosque. The militants inside the structure returned fire with automatic weapons and grenades of their own.
The head of the radical Islamic group, Abdel-Latif Moussa, was killed when fighting resumed after dawn Saturday, Ihab Ghussein, a Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press.
He said Moussa detonated an explosives vest he was wearing during the fighting.
"The so-called Moussa has committed suicide ... killing a mediator who had been sent to him to persuade him and his followers to hand themselves over to the government," Ghussein said.
An armed Jund Ansar Allah...
An armed Jund Ansar Allah member stands guard while his leader Abdel-Latif Moussa, not pictured, gives a speech during Friday prayers in Rafah.
Photo: AP
He said the fighting ended later in the morning.
Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said of the 24 people killed, six were Hamas police officers and one an 11-year-old girl.
The group's Web site vowed vengeance, meanwhile, saying "we swear to God to avenge the martyrs' blood and we will turn their women to widows."
Hamas also confirmed the death in the fighting of one of its high level commanders, Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades commander Abu-Jibril Shimali, who is believed to have orchestrated the kidnapping three years ago of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.
Jund Ansar Allah claims inspiration from al-Qaida's ultraconservative brand of Islam but no direct links have been confirmed.
The confrontation was triggered when the leader of the group defied Gaza's Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate.
Jund Ansar Allah and a number of other small, shadowy radical groups seek to enforce an even stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza than that advocated by Hamas.
These groups are also upset that the Hamas regime has honored a cease-fire with Israel for the past seven months.
Hamas says it does not impose its religious views on others, but only seeks to set a pious example for people to follow.
Radical splinter groups such as Jund Ansar Allah call for a global jihad against the entire Western world while Hamas maintains its struggle is only against Israeli occupation.
"They are inspired by unbalanced ideologies and in the past they carried out a number of explosions targeting Internet cafes and wedding parties," said Ghussein, adding that the groups do not have any external ties.
Hamas blocked all roads to Rafah and declared the town a closed military zone. They said they have arrested about 40 members of the group so far.
Saeb Erekat, a senior peace negotiator with Israel and a member of the rival Fatah group in the West Bank, described the situation in Gaza as "alarming."
"Gaza is going down the drain in chaos and lawlessness," he told the AP.
Jund Ansar Allah first came to public attention in June after it claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to attack Israel from Gaza on horseback.
In July, three Muslim extremists from the group holed themselves up in a building in southern Gaza, surrendering to Hamas police only after a lengthy standoff.
It is unclear how many adherents Jund Ansar Allah or other similar extremist groups have in Gaza.
Hamas battles Al-Qaeda in Gaza
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Jolt
, two bit, dumb
who couldn't get it through his thick skull that his petty, little, pathetic world is changing. Hamas did the right thing IMO.
Bookmarks