Osbat al-Nour

Osbat al-Nour (Band of Light) is an extreme militant group that professes allegiance to a Salafist interpretation of Islam.[1]

Ain al-Hilweh 2003

In May 2003 fighting broke out between members of Osbat al-Nour and Fatah militia members in the south Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh after the near-fatal shooting of Osbat al-Nour leader Abdullah Shraidi on May 17,[2] in which one of Abdullah's bodyguards and a bystander were killed. The shooting occurred while returning from the funeral of a Fatah member and family relative, Ibrahim Shraidi who was gunned down by an unknown assailant.[3] Roughly 200 Osbat al-Nour fundamentalist fighters attacked Fatah offices. Eight people were killed and 25 wounded in the fighting at Ain al-Hilweh. Schools in the Ain al-Hilweh camp were shut and most stores kept their shutters down at the height of the fighting, which provoked an exodus by hundreds of camp residents.[4] Two months after the ambush Abdullah Shraidi died from wounds received during the attack.[2] Fatah agreed to a ceasefire after failing to defeat the fundamentalists in the camp.[2]

Osbat al-Nour is said to be an offshoot of a larger Osbat al-Ansar, which is on the United States' list of terrorist groups because of its alleged links to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda.[5]

References

  1. ↑ The Jamestown Foundation
  2. 1 2 3 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-03-10. Retrieved 2014-11-20.
  3. ↑ CLAO News Archived 2007-03-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Eight killed, 25 wounded in Lebanon refugee camp battle
  5. ↑ IsraPundit
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