Fatah commander denies sending suicide bombers to
Iraq
‘Hundreds’ have traveled independently from Palestinian camps in Lebanon
Nicholas Blanford
Special to The Daily Star
A senior Fatah commander in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian
refugee camp denied Sunday a newspaper report that claimed he had dispatched hundreds of
volunteer suicide bombers to Iraq to fight US and British coalition forces.
Mounir Maqdah, a colonel in the Fatah faction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat,
admitted that “hundreds” of volunteers had traveled independently from
Palestinian camps in Lebanon along with Arabs from other countries to Iraq before the
onset of the conflict.
But he said that he had had no part in the arrangements, adding that the movement of
volunteers from Ain al-Hilweh to Iraq had ceased.
Maqdah was responding to a report carried by the Jerusalem Post which quoted the
Nazareth-based As-Sannarah newspaper as saying that the veteran Palestinian guerrilla
commander had sent hundreds of his men to Baghdad to launch suicide attacks against
American and British troops.
The first suicide attack in the war occurred Friday when an Iraqi soldier blew himself up
at a US military checkpoint in the southern Iraq town of Najaf, killing four American
soldiers.
“Before the war, there was a notice in the camps calling for volunteers,” Maqdah
said. “Many people went from all the camps, not just Ain al-Hilweh. Iraqi TV
interviewed them. There were Palestinians, Syrians and other Arabs.”
Although technically a member of Fatah, Maqdah has developed a powerful base of support in
Ain al-Hilweh and maintains good relations with the camp’s numerous factions and
groups. He has served as a mediator in the ongoing violent dispute between Fatah and
Islamist groups.
Maqdah said that he encouraged Arabs to go to Iraq.
“We wish we are all in Iraq fighting the Americans,” he said. “Iraq is the
only Arab country that has been supporting our intifada so an aggression against Iraq is
like an aggression against Palestine.”
But he was guarded when asked if he supported attacks against US and British interests in
Lebanon.
“We support all actions against US interests all over the world, but mostly what we
would like to see is the Arab people mount mass protests demanding the closure of US
embassies and their other interests,” he said.
Maqdah said he did not expect Palestinians from the camps to show their anger at the Iraq
war by attacking Israel from south Lebanon.
“Why fight Israel, when you can go and fight their boss (the Americans) in
Iraq,” he said.
Maqdah is sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for having links to Al-Qaeda and
plotting attacks against US and Israeli interests during the millennium celebrations three
years ago. He is also accused of funding and directing suicide attacks in Israel by
members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
Copyright©Daily Star |
