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Al Qaeda Sets Up Base in Lebanese Refugee Camp


(Telegraph-UK) Damien McElroy - More than 200 hardened al Qaeda and Taliban veterans arrived in Ain Al-Hilweh in Lebanon last year and took control of a district known as Emergency Street after a bitter turf war with Fatah. The fundamentalist Esbat Al-Ansar (League of Warriors) faction has imposed Islamic customs on residents of the 100,000-strong camp. Three men have been killed in the past month after they smuggled alcohol past Lebanese army checkpoints. "There are many foreigners who have come to this camp in the last one or two years," said Zain Farhoud, 42. "They are taking the young boys and filling their heads with the glories of martyrdom for Islam." In the office of Lebanese intelligence on a hill opposite Ain Al-Hilweh, the resident commander gave out his telephone number, but with a warning. "Don't use it in Ain Al-Hilweh," he said. "There's nothing I can do for you there."
2003-06-23 00:00:00
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