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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia;color:#666666;text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:bold'>Ain Al Hilwe Journal</NYT_KICKER> (New York times)<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia;color:#666666;text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia;color:#666666;text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:bold'><img width=600 height=330 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C7B338.638DB400" border=0><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia;color:#666666;text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:21.5pt;font-family:
Georgia'>A Militant Fights From a Basement on <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Emergency Street</st1:address></st1:Street> <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></NYT_HEADLINE></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Georgia;font-weight:bold'><NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0">By
NADA BAKRI<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>AIN
AL HILWE REFUGEE CAMP, <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/lebanon/index.html?inline=nyt-geo"
title="More news and information about Lebanon.">Lebanon</a> — On a
recent afternoon, with the smoke still rising from buildings burned in fierce
fighting here between Islamist militants and the Lebanese Army, a man calling
himself <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/hassan_mustafa_osama_nasr/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
title="More articles about Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr.">Abu Omar</a> gave a tour
of his squalid neighborhood. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>Abu Omar, a militant
Islamist, is among the most charismatic leaders in the camp, loved by his
supporters but detested by those who say militants bring nothing but
destruction to the Palestinians.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>An old woman stopped
him. “Thank God you are safe,” she said, hugging and kissing him
three times on each bearded cheek. “My house is completely burned,”
she said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>“Don’t
worry about it,” he replied as he took her hands. “We will fix it
or get you a new one. Do not worry. Everything will be fixed.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>The fighting was a
sign of just how fragile <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has become. As the Lebanese Army battled militants in the Nahr al Bared refugee
camp in the north, gunfire broke out between the army and militants here in
this camp, near <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sidon</st1:place></st1:City>.
Abu Omar says the fighting started after a soldier provoked a
“brother.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>“He was telling
him that ‘we are defeating you in Nahr al Bared, we are burning
you,’ ” Abu Omar said. “Then he started shooting toward him;
the brother went home, brought his gun and started shooting back.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>The government
disputes that version of events, but by either account, the camp is a
tinderbox, and Abu Omar, whose real name is Chehadeh Jawhar, is an apt symbol
of the weakness of the Lebanese state. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>Even before the
current political crisis, with pro-American factions struggling to keep power
from pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian parties, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> was a nation without
institutions, a place where power was divided among religious sects. It was a
state that gave Palestinians free license to live in 12 refugee camps within
its borders. Within the camps’ confines, they were immune from the
country’s rules, laws, police and oversight, but condemned to a life of
degradation and second-class status.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>For those like Abu
Omar, with a militant political agenda, the arrangement created 12 different
places to set up shop and 12 bases to run to, hide in and conduct operations.
Abu Omar lives on <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Emergency Street</st1:address></st1:Street>,
a free-wheeling alley of martial faith surrounded by squalor. He takes visitors
into his basement.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>With a shrug of his
shoulders, he pointed to a corner in the darkened room where he has stored TNT,
plastic explosives and guns. He smiled, then opened boxes and black school
backpacks, rummaging through a potpourri of ammunition, makeshift land mines
and detonating wires. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>The explosives stored
in his basement were similar to those that have been used to destabilize <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> since
the assassination of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.
There is no way to know if the basement was the source of any of those bombs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>An explosion recently
ripped through a tire shop on Emergency Street as Abu Omar and other militants
were extracting TNT from a 107-millimeter shell, apparently to use in making a
bomb, according to Lebanese security officials who spoke on condition of
anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak to the news media. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>Abu Omar and two other
militants were wounded, and two others died.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>“Victory is not
required from us,” he said in an interview before the explosion.
“What is required is to be ready for a jihad in the name of God, ready to
reinstate Islam’s rule and Muslim caliphate. It is normal, if the army
shoots at us, we will shoot back at them — normal.” Abu Omar, 37, was
once a fighter with the mainstream <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/fatah_al/index.html?inline=nyt-org"
title="More articles about Al Fatah.">Fatah</a> faction of <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/yasir_arafat/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
title="More articles about Yasir Arafat.">Yasir Arafat</a>, the former <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/palestinian_authority/index.html?inline=nyt-org"
title="More articles about Palestinian Authority">Palestinian Authority</a>
president. An electrician turned arms smuggler, he said he left the group when
he said he felt its leaders “were minimizing” the Palestinian
cause. “<st1:City w:st="on">Palestine</st1:City> is not only for
Palestinians, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>
is not only for Palestinians,” he said. “It is for all Arabs and
Muslims.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>He says he has been
wanted by the Lebanese government since 1991 for scores of felonies.
“Crimes that cannot be counted,” he boasted. “It is normal,
normal.” <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>A senior Lebanese
military official confirmed that Abu Omar is wanted in connection with numerous
killings and bombings. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>He cannot leave the
camp. Not, at least, through the front gate in daylight. He says he is now a
member of Asbat al Ansar, a group listed by <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State> as a terrorist group. In the
camp, he built a house, married and had eight children.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>The military official
said Abu Omar is believed to have left the ranks of Asbat al Ansar and is now a
member of a splinter faction called Jund al Sham.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>Abu Omar struts
through the camp like a sports star, or the mayor. He stopped at his
mother’s house. She had just returned from a pilgrimage to <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Mecca</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Saudi
Arabia</st1:country-region></st1:place>. He hugged and kissed her; she
thanked God for his safety. His sisters showered him with yet more kisses.
“We miss you,” they said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>Taxi drivers and their
customers passing by also stopped to give thanks that he had survived the
battle. More residents and neighbors joined the line. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>But caught between the
army and Abu Omar and his supporters are those who simply struggle to get
through their days, and see in the militant groups the seeds of their own
devastation. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>“They burned the
houses, they burned our houses,” said a Palestinian refugee who gave his
name as Abu Iyad for fear of reprisal. He said his perfume shop and his house,
both on <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Emergency Street</st1:address></st1:Street>,
had been set on fire. “If the army gives me a uniform, I will shoot at
them now,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>“We want to get
rid of all these problems,” said Mustapha Razi, another refugee.
“If my brother is creating problems, I want to get rid of him.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>But they know they
can’t, and that the army can’t either. If fighting erupts again,
they all said they would do what they did a few days ago: flee. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>Abu Omar says it is
unlikely those clashes would resume. But if they do, he said, civilians outside
the camp are fair game. “If the army shoots at us again, we will shoot at
civilians in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sidon</st1:place></st1:City>.”
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=4 color=black face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black'>And off he walked to
visit his mother and sisters. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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