In response to confessions aired by Syria's state television, the Beirut-based al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Saturday carried testimonies made by Fatah al-Islam detainees. While the confessions broadcast on Syrian TV accused Mustaqbal Movement of financing Fatah al-Islam, written confessions indicated that the detainees accuse Syrian intelligence agencies of supporting the al-Qaeda affiliated group, the newspaper said.
It quoted one detainee identified as Youssef Darwish as saying that Syrian authorities tasked him with training a group of Fatah-Intifada after being dispatched to the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon.
That same group, according to the daily, was also composed of "Islamist Mujadideen" who came from various Arab countries to Damascus where they were being convinced to enter Lebanon instead of Iraq.
Another detainee identified as Ahmed Merhi also confessed that head of the Syrian Intelligence Counter Terrorism Bureau Brig. Gen. Jawdat al-Hasan "knows everything about (Fatah al-Islam leader) Shaker al-Abssi as well as his group in Lebanon and the tasked that they had been assigned."
