Jihadister med Al Qaida-tilknytning har slått seg ned i palestinske leire i Libanon, hvor de har rekruttert og trent krigere. De har også med seg Irak-veteraner fra arabiske land.

New York Times har vært inne i to leire: en ved Tripoli og en sør for Beirut, hvor trening pågår for fullt. De er utenfor myndighetenes rekkevidde, for palestinske leire er ekstraterritoriale, dvs libanesisk politi kan ikke gå inn og arrestere noen. De kan bare følge med fra utsiden.

I leiren Nahr el Bared nord for Tripoli trener Shakir al Abbsi sine krigere i gruppen han kaller Fatah al Islam. Han sier han bringer jihad til palestinerne. Selv er han også palestiner.

He has solid terrorist credentials. A former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia who was killed last summer, Mr. Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia along with Mr. Zarqawi in the 2002 assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley. Just four months after arriving here from Syria, Mr. Abssi has a militia that intelligence officials estimate at 150 men and an arsenal of explosives, rockets and even an antiaircraft gun.

During a recent interview with The New York Times, Mr. Abssi displayed his makeshift training facility and his strident message that America needed to be punished for its presence in the Islamic world. «The only way to achieve our rights is by force,» he said. «This is the way America deals with us. So when the Americans feel that their lives and their economy are threatened, they will know that they should leave.»

Mr. Abssi’s organization is the image of what intelligence officials have warned is the re-emergence of Al Qaeda. Shattered after 2001, the organization founded by Osama bin Laden is now reforming as an alliance of small groups around the world that share a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam but have developed their own independent terror capabilities, these officials have said. If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has acknowledged directing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and a string of other terror plots, represents the previous generation of Qaeda leaders, Mr. Abssi and others like him represent the new.

Libanesisk sikkerhetspoliti arresterte denne uken fire menn fra Fatah al Islam, på mistanke om at de sto bak bombingen av to busser med kristne libanesere i februar, dagen før toårsdagen for attentatet på Rafik Hariri.

Det er de som mener at Shakir al Abbsi har fått beskjed av Syria om å drive undergraving og terror, mot amerikanske og libanesiske mål.

Utenfor loven

Maj. Gen. Achraf Rifi, general director of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, says the government does not have authority to enter a Palestinian camp — even though Mr. Abssi is now wanted in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on terrorism charges.

To enter the camps, he said, «We would need an agreement from other Arab countries.» He said that instead the government was tightening its cordon around the camp to make it harder for Mr. Abssi or his men to slip in and out.

Irak-jihadister

I flyktningeleiren Ain al Hinwe sør for Beirut har en annen gruppe dukket opp: Asbat al Ansar.

Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have long been fertile ground for militancy, particularly focused on the fight against Israel. But militants in those camps now have a broader vision. In Ain el Hilwe camp, an hour’s drive south of Beirut, another radical Sunni group, Asbat al Ansar, has been sending fighters to Iraq since the start of the war, its leaders acknowledged in interviews.

Legitimitet til å drepe

Praksis har gått foran teorien innen jihad: man har oppdaget selvmordsbombing og så gått til kildene og funnet belegg for det. Asbat al Ansar dyrker en skriftlærd fra 800-tallet som forklarer når det er lovlig å drepe kvinner og barn.

Det sier litt om lovtradisjonen; at jihadismen gjenoppvekker skrifter som er 1200 år gamle og bruker dem aktivt. Det er vanskelig å fatte for et sekulært vestlig hode.

Mr. Abssi said he derived much of his spiritual guidance from Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Bukhari, a ninth-century Islamic scholar. A recent study by the Defense Department’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., listed Mr. Bukhari among the 20 Islamic scholars who had greater influence today among militant Arabs than Mr. bin Laden.

«Originally, the killing of innocents and children was forbidden,» Mr. Abssi said. «However, there are situations in which the killing of such is permissible. One of these exceptions is those that kill our women and children.»

Religion til palestinernes sak

Abbsi sier han er blitt godt mottatt i den palestinske leieren. Han finner ungdom som trenger en mening med livet. At al Qaida-ideologi vinner innpass blant palestinere i Libanon kan få konsekvener.

Late last November, Mr. Abssi moved into the Palestinian camp here, seized three compounds held by a secular group, Fatah al Intifada, raised his group’s black flag, and issued a declaration saying he was bringing religion to the Palestinian cause. Mr. Abssi reappeared on Jordan’s radar in January when police had a three-hour battle with two suspected terrorists in the northern Jordanian city of Irbid, killing one of the men. Authorities say they learned that Mr. Abssi had sent the men. A short while later, Lebanese authorities picked up two Saudi Arabian men leaving Mr. Abssi’s camp, and learned both men had fought in Iraq. Two more men were found leaving the camp in February, General Rifi said.
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In the interview with The Times, Mr. Abssi said he had been largely warmly received in the Palestinian camp, and that he was optimistic about his cause. «One of the reasons for choosing this camp is our belief that the people here are close to God as they feel the same suffering as our brothers in Palestine,» he said.

«Today’s youth, when they see what is happening in Palestine and Iraq, it enthuses them to join the way of the right and jihad,» he said. «These people have now started to adopt the right path.»

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