Region | Syria
Leader of militant Fatah Al Islam 'has been arrested in Syria'
An intriguing item about the mysterious leader of a ferocious militant group floated around the Lebanese and Syrian media over the weekend.
- By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times/ Washington Post News Service
- Published: 00:43 October 7, 2008
Lebanon: An intriguing item about the mysterious leader of a ferocious militant group floated around the Lebanese and Syrian media over the weekend.
According to a report in the Syrian newspaper Al Liwaa, Syrian officials captured the leader of the Al Qaida-linked militant group Fatah Al Islam two months ago in their nation. The report says that Shaker Abbsi was caught in Meliha district of southern Damascus and hauled off to prison.
Abbsi, a 53-year-old of Palestinian descent piloted MiGs for the Libyan air force in a war against Chad and helped Nicaragua's leftist Sandinistas on a trip to Latin America in the early 1980s. But as the years went by, he drifted toward radicalism and beliefs. Syrians locked him up in 2002, accusing him of plotting against the Damascus government, but let him go in 2005.
He popped up in Lebanon as leader of Fatah Al Islam, a group of well-armed insurgents. But according to reports, Abbsi was captured when Syrian intelligence operatives carried out a "major house raid" two months ago in Damascus.
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