“Apostate” Fatah Heads Are on the Block
The threat to the Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah loyalists was spelled out on April 28 in a statement issued by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s “Al Tahwid al Jihad of the Levant and Egypt” and its Gaza cells.
It announced that the “traditional sacrifice of apostates” was about to be revived with the deaths of Palestinian “apostates.”
On May 21, the group claimed its first hit.
An important Abbas ally in Gaza, General Tarik Abu Ragheb, head of Palestinian General Intelligence, was critically wounded the day before but survived a big blast that sent the elevator at PG headquarters in Gaza City plunging to the bottom with him inside. (See HOT POINTS below)
This week, DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s counter-terror sources report another specific notice of intent to kill. This one names Abbas and his senior lieutenant and Fatah leader in Gaza, Muhammed Dahlan.
It was released by Abu Hufeiza al Nejadi, a Saudi Arabian from the Nejd region, who until recently specialized in issuing bulletins detailing the attacks Zarqawi’s networks execute against American forces in Iraq.
The re-assignment of Zarqawi’s top publicist indicates how deeply al Qaeda’s Iraq leader is involved in an all-out effort to develop his new fronts against the Palestinians and Israel.
Our al Qaeda’s experts report that the secret go-ahead orders for his Gaza cell are encoded in two words in the latest murder threat: Children of Zion. This term has never been noticed before in Al Qaeda’s messages – even in relation to Israel and Jews.
Abu Mazen, according to al Nejadi’s bulletin, is condemned to be punished because of a recent “contemptible act,” which is not specified by the slightest hint.
In addition, Abbas deserves to die, according to al Qaeda, for his aspiration to establish a secular Palestinian state.
Al Nejadi speaks at greater length about Dahlan’s alleged misdeeds.
He is described as the leading Palestinian collaborator with the crusaders, i.e. the Americans. He also maintains warm relations with the “Children of Zion”, the Israelis.
If that is not enough to condemn him to die, he is charged with establishing the “death prison” when he commanded the Palestinian Preventive Security service, where Hamas and Jihad Islami prisoners were held and tortured.
The notice ends with a promise to publish a further list of al Qaeda targets in the ruling echelon of the Palestinian Authority, together with a fatwa setting out the reasons why true Muslims must distance themselves from al Qaeda’s arenas of operation and refrain from interfering in its missions.
Al Tawhid al Jihad of the Levant and Egypt is building up a record.
Soon after its establishment by Zarqawi, the group took responsibility for the Sharm el-Sheikh bombing attacks on July 23, 2005 – one of its earliest operations – as well as the Katyusha rocket attacks on US ships and the Israeli port of Eilat a month later; then the bombing attacks on Amman hotels on Nov. 9, 2005 and the rocket strike against N. Israel from Lebanon on Jan. 5, 2006.
