-Caveat Lector- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID= 2309808
Car Bomb Kills Accused Qaeda Man in Lebanon Camp Sat March 1, 2003 09:16 AM ET By Ali Hashisho AIN EL-HILWEH, Lebanon (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded inside Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday, killing an Egyptian Islamist Israel has accused of leading al Qaeda's operations in Lebanon, camp security sources said. The sources said the man identified as Abu Mohammad al-Masri, an Afghan war veteran who came to Ain el-Hilweh six years ago and never left, was killed as he left his bean shop to walk to the mosque to pray. The mosque was frequented by members of Osbat al-Ansar, a militant group on Washington's list of "terrorist" organizations suspected of links to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. "The dead man was targeted personally," said Sheikh Jamal Khattab, an Islamist leader in the southern Ain el-Hilweh camp, but he could not say if the man was a member of Osbat al-Ansar. Two other people were also wounded in the blast. In July, Israel's then-ambassador to the United Nations Yehuda Lancry accused Masri of leading al Qaeda operations in Lebanon in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "In recent years al Qaeda has established a broad infrastructure in Lebanon, centerd mainly in the Ain Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon," said the letter, posted on a United Nations Web site. "Al Qaeda's Lebanon operations are headed by...Masri, a terrorist leader who was deeply involved in the plot to attack American and Israeli targets in Jordan in 1999," it added. Lebanese officials have repeatedly denied reports that al Qaeda members are holed up in Palestinian refugee camps like Ain el- Hilweh, which Lebanese authorities do not enter and are controlled by Palestinian factions. Around 500 camp residents, including Islamist leaders and armed men who fired into the air in mourning, attended Masri's funeral, held shortly after his death. TIMED TO EXPLODE Palestinian security sources said Masri's attacker had driven a Beirut-registered, explosives-laden car into the camp in the middle of the night. They said they believed the device was timed to explode as Masri arrived to pray. A previously unknown group calling itself Youth of the Armed Struggle claimed responsibility for the attack in a faxed statement sent to Reuters, saying Masri was a member of Jamaat an-Nour, thought to be an offshoot of Osbat al-Ansar. "We decided to cut off the head of the snake in a first step that the Youth of the Armed Struggle will take to cleanse the camp of all suspect elements that were planted in the camp, and which started to sabotage camp security," the statement said. The fax blamed Jamaat an-Nour for a string of bomb attacks in Ain el-Hilweh and for threats against prominent Palestinians there. Palestinians in the camp dismissed the claim as a farce. Islamists in Ain el-Hilweh, near the port city of Sidon, quickly blamed Israel for the attack, saying an Israeli reconnaissance plane had hovered overhead prior to the bombing. A senior Lebanese army official confirmed an Israeli plane flew over Sidon on Friday, but said there was no reason to believe the two events were related. A string of bombings has ripped through Ain el-Hilweh in recent months, where tensions have been high since Islamic militants clashed with fighters loyal to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in August, killing three people. Lebanese politicians hostile to some 350,000 Palestinian refugees registered in about a dozen camps across Lebanon point to Ain el- Hilweh as a haven for militants and organized crime. 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