Don't know if it was Mossad or the CIA, but good work, guys! Keep it up!

Alleged al-Qaida head in Lebanon killed by car bomb

Jerusalem Post
Mar. 2, 2003

The alleged leader of al-Qaida in Lebanon, Farouk al-Masri, was killed in a car bomb explosion outside his shop in the teeming Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon on Saturday morning.

Islamic and Palestinian groups blamed Israel for the assassination, which they linked to the reported flying of a IAF reconnaissance drone over the camp at the time of the explosion.

There was no Israeli comment.

Masri, also known as Muhammad Abdel-Hamid Shanouha, was reported, however, to have more than his fair share of enemies among armed Palestinian groups in the camp and elsewhere in Lebanon.

According to news agency reports, Masri had left the nearby mosque in which he prays every morning to return to his shop when the car bomb was detonated. He was killed instantly and two Palestinian bystanders were wounded in the blast, which also caused damage to some properties in the immediate vicinity.

Masri, an Egyptian by birth, reportedly fought against Russian troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s on behalf of al-Qaida and the Taliban and moved to Lebanon some six years ago.

Israel Radio reported that he was accused by Israel, in a letter sent to the UN several months ago, of having planned to carry out attacks against US and Israeli targets in Jordan in 1999.

Palestinian officials were quoted by news agencies in Lebanon as saying that Masri belonged to the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad, which has reportedly been behind several bombings in Ein el-Hilweh.

The camp is run by rival armed Palestinian groups, with Lebanese soldiers manning checkpoints at access points on the outside. It is believed to shelter several fugitive Islamic militants, including members of Asbat al-Ansar, another extremist Palestinian group that is on the US list of terrorist organizations.

News agencies quoted Lebanese security officials as saying that Masri was reported to have connections to the al-Qaida network of arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden.

According to the Israel Radio report, he was head of the organization in Lebanon and as such was considered to be highly dangerous.

Sheikh Jamal Khattab, a Muslim cleric who reportedly heads the Islamic Jihad and represents various Islamic factions in Ein el-Hilweh, was among those who accused Israel of being behind the assassination.

"The incident coincided with the passing of a reconnaissance plane, which leads us to believe the Israeli Mossad is behind the bombing," Khattab was quoted as saying.

He said the car containing the bomb had come from outside the camp and had been parked near the mosque on Friday evening.

The PLO also charged that Israel was responsible, saying the method was similar to that used in attacks by Israeli security forces on Palestinian militants in the territories.

The assassination of Masri, however, came a few days after a Lebanese military court sentenced to death in absentia another alleged al-Qaida member, Mivlet Ziakar, also known as "Obeida the Turk."

Ziakar, who is under arrest in Turkey, was accused of conspiring with four others to destabilize the state by launching a series of terrorist acts.
Lebanese newspapers reported last week that military authorities said the case fell under Lebanon's anti-terrorism campaign.

The four other suspects, a Saudi national and three Lebanese, who have all been arrested, are also accused of trying to set up an al-Qaida training camp in Lebanon.