Riyad Tali, the Chief Military investigating magistrate in Lebanon, has issued an indictment decision in which he recommended the death sentence for Usbat al-Ansar members. They include: Mustafa Nabil Sharqawi, Wisam Husayn Tuhaybish, Usamah Amin al-Shihabi, Ziyad Amin al-Shihabi, Tariq Shawqi al-Ghalban, and Nasr Muhammad Nasir Abu-Siyam and Khalil Ahmad Abd-al-Mu'ti, for conducting terrorist activities.
The indictment decision said that Khalil Abd-al-Mu'ti met Hassan al-Shihabi in 1996 and attended, along with Tariq al-Ghalban and Mustafa al-Sharqawi, religious lessons under his supervision. Allegedly, they cosnpired to bomb a wooden hut in Al-Qinnayah neighborhood, but the bomb did not explode. Nonetheless, they managed to bomb Buji supermarket and Mariya restaurant and another shop in Maghdushah.
Hassan al-Shihabi was killed along with Nasr Abu-Siyam, after robbing the Beirut Commercial Bank in Al-Damur
According to sources, Usbat al-Ansar is the al Qaeda-aligned Sunni Islamist group and thus linked to Osama bin Laden. It operates from the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon. This small group recently underwent a split. The new breakaway faction, which calls itself Jama'at al-Nur (Association of the Enlightened), is apparently being led by the eldest son of Hisham Shreidi, the founder of Usbat al-Ansar who was assassinated by Fatah in 1991.
The new faction, which has its own mosque in Ain al-Hilweh, is believed to have attracted only a handful of the movement's 200-250 guerrillas. Security officials believe that it was responsible for a wave of threatening letters mailed to prominent public figures in Sidon. (Albawaba.com)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
