Fatah Fails to Defeat Islamist Rivals in Ain al-Hilweh

An effort by Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement to gain ascendency over radical Islamists in Lebanon's largest refugee camp ended in failure after intense clashes in mid-May. The fighting in Ain al-Hilweh was triggered by the killing of a Fatah member by Usbat al-Nour fighters on the morning of May 17. That evening, Fatah gunmen ambushed Usbat al-Nour leader Abdullah Shreidi and his entourage, seriously wounding him and two of his bodyguards, while killing a third bodyguard and a bystander.

Over the next 48 hours, Fatah and Usbat al-Nour hastily prepared for a full-fledged assault. To the surprise of Fatah commanders, however, Usbat al-Ansar (a larger group of which Usbat al-Nour is a splinter) joined forces with its rival and the two groups launch a combined assault on Fatah positions in the camp on May 19. Seven people were killed and twenty-five people were wounded in the day-long clashes, which ended with Fatah agreeing to a cease-fire.

US Reportedly Seeking to Buy Syrians out of Lebanon

According to a May 29 report in the Lebanese daily Al-Safir, the United States is offering to pay the Lebanese government $500 million dollars if Syrian troops withdraw from Lebanon and the militant Hezbollah organization is disarmed. The paper said that the offer would be formally conveyed by Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) during their visit to Beirut on May 30.

After the September 11 attacks, Issa reportedly delivered a message from the Bush administration to Hezbollah leaders, asking the group to disengage from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and share information it has on Al-Qaeda, in return for forgiveness of its past involvement in anti-American attacks. The deal was rejected by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah Arms Shipment Seized en route to Gaza

An Israeli military spokesman said on May 22 that the Israeli navy had seized an Egyptian-owned fishing boat, Abu Hassan, attempting to transfer explosives from Lebanon to militant Palestinian groups in Gaza. The boat's contents included CD-ROM manuals for suicide bombers, 25 Katyusha rocket fuses and a radio activation system for remote-control bombs. Also present on the boat, which was intercepted west of the port city of Haifa, was a Hezbollah explosives expert identified as Hamad Masalem Mussa Abu Amra. Israeli officials said that another Hezbollah operative, Adel Murabi, had organized the shipment in conjunction with two Palestinians with links to the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli officials say that Hezbollah is increasingly seeking to infiltrate its own instructors into the Palestinian territories to train terrorists, rather than training them at its own camps in Lebanon. Hezbollah was linked to two earlier arms smuggling ships intercepted by Israel, the Santorini in May 2001 and the Karine-A in January 2002.

Australia to Ban Hezbollah

Australian Attorney-General Daryl Williams introduced a bill in parliament on May 29 that would outlaw the Lebanese Hezbollah organization, saying that his government had intelligence information that implicated the group in "terrorist" activities. Canada banned Hezbollah in December 2002.

Iran Reportedly Halts Program to Train Suicide Glider Pilots

The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported on May 29 that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has halted a program to train Lebanese and Palestinian terrorists to fly gliders in suicide attacks. The paper quoted a source close to the IRGC as saying that 30 members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad who were enrolled in the program returned to Lebanon without completing their training. The source said that Iran had previously trained nearly 100 Hezbollah members and around 20 Islamic Jihad to conduct the aerial attacks and had sent gliders to Lebanon.

French Foreign Minister Calls for Syrian Withdrawal

On April 30, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called on Damascus to "push ahead" with the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon. "It is essential that Lebanon regains full independence and complete sovereignty, according to [UN Security Council] Resolution 520," he said. Villepin's remarks were seen as a departure from the long-standing American and French view that a Syrian withdrawal should take place in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israel peace settlement. During his October 2002 visit to Beirut, French President Jacques Chirac said that he favored a withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon as part of an "evolution towards peace" in the Middle East.