Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

184 • FATAH AL-ISLAMerosion of al Fatah’s power, by, among other things, the State Departmentattempting in early 2008 to dissuade the family of Aharon Ellisfrom pursuing a civil lawsuit against the PLO and PA in the ManhattanFederal District Court seeking damages for the killing of Ellis byan al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade suicide-bombing attack on a bar mitzvahin the city of Hadera, Israel, on 15 February 2008.On 18 January 2008 al Fatah announced that the al Aqsa Martyrs’Brigade had been disbanded. A suicide bombing in the southern Israelicity of Dimona was claimed in the name of the al Aqsa Martyrs’Brigade on 4 February 2008, but this was found to have been an effortby Hamas to undermine the credibility of al Fatah. On 17 June2008 Abbas sent a delegation headed by an al Fatah leader, HikmatZeid, to Gaza City to try to negotiate a settlement with Hamas to healthe rift among the Palestinian groups.FATAH AL-ISLAM. The Fatah al-Islam (Conquest of Islam) groupis a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist group formed in Lebanon madeup largely of Palestinian, Saudi, and Syrian militants, many of themveterans of the anti-U.S. insurgency within Iraq. The group, whichis not related to either al Fatah or the Fatah Revolutionary Council,first appeared in November 2006 when its members forciblyseized three compounds belonging to another Palestinian militantgroup within the Nahr al Bared refugee camp located in Tripoli. Itwas founded and led by Shaker al-Abssi, a Palestinian refugee whowas an associate of al Qa’eda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi(1966–2006) who, along with al Zarqawi, was accused by the Jordaniangovernment of the murder of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley,who was shot in Amman on 28 October 2002. The group allegedlyhas around 150 experienced fighters.Although the group claims to accept the pro-jihad doctrines ofOsama bin Laden, it has disavowed having any direct link to alQa’eda. Despite its militant Salafist complexion, many observersbelieved that it was actually backed either by Syria or by Saudi Arabia.Many Lebanese Christian politicians, such as Samir Geagea ofthe Lebanese Forces party, believed that the group was actually beingsecretly backed by Syria as a means of undermining the anti-SyrianLebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that came topower in the wake of the February 2005 Cedar Revolution. AlthoughSyria formerly backed the Hezbollah Shi’ite militia, that group was