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AUAD v. BULGARIA JUDGMENT
the camp calmed down and that on 4 August 2010 the two groups’ leaders
in Ain al-Hilweh made a truce.
86. On 25 December 2010 the television network Al-Jazeera reported
that a senior Jund al-Sham commander, Ghandi Sahmarani, had been found
murdered in Ain el-Hilweh. It said that the death of Sahmarani “could be a
major blow for [Jund al-Sham], which has had several leaders and members
either killed or fleeing its ranks in the past few years”.
87. On 3 January 2011 the Lebanese news website NOW Lebanon
reported on the latest developments with Jund al-Sham. The report said,
inter alia, that colonel Issa, appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas in May 2010 as the head of the Fatah security in the camps, had said
that Fatah and other factions present in Ain al-Hilweh, mainly Usbat
al-Ansar, had reached a peace agreement. After talks, Usbat al-Ansar
leaders had given Issa a free mandate to annihilate the threat he said
jihadists and radicals posed to the camp’s security. Issa was quoted as
saying that “[a]fter some battles with these factions, some died, many of
them were captured and handed over to the Lebanese authorities, and those
that were left fled. These groups took advantage of the instability in
Lebanon and infiltrated the camp, and when we realized that they were
among suspects in explosions taking place around stores, we started dealing
with them with security means, we captured many of them, went to battle
with some, and some, like I said, fled”. He had also said that some of the
jihadists had left for Europe, adding that “[t]hey were originally in the
‘emergency’ area [at the outskirts of the camp] and started fleeing bit by bit.
Some left to France, some to Belgium, some to Sofia in Bulgaria”. He had
said that in mid-December 2010, five of the runaways had been sent back to
Lebanon by the Bulgarian authorities. Among them had been Youssef
Kayed, a rogue former Fatah member who had rebelled against the central
command, Anwar al-Sidawi and Imad Karroum, both wanted by the
Lebanese authorities. The report went on to say that according to another
Fatah official in Ain al-Hilweh, what was left of the radical Islamists was no
longer a threat without the head of the militant group. “The phenomenon of
Jund al-Sham is over in the camps now and does not constitute a threat
anymore,” he had told NOW.
88. In an article of 26 April 2011, titled “Fatah and Jund al-Sham clash
in Ain al-Hilweh”, the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star reported that
during the previous weekend there had been armed clashes, with an
exchange of missiles, between Fatah and members of Jund al-Sham. They
had started after two unidentified individuals had refused to obey the
commands of the security forces at a checkpoint. Jund al-Sham militants
had joined the conflict after reportedly coming under fire from Fatah.
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