Message from Abdullah Azzam Brigades Commander Saleh al-Qarawi

Written by Administrator Sunday, 30 January 2011 12:37

On November 24, 2010, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an Al‐Qaida‐affiliated offshoot operating in Lebanon, released a statement by its commander, Saleh al-Qarawi. In a prior interview, al-Qarawi noted his links to Abu Musab al‐Zarqawi—the late leader of Al‐Qaida in Iraq—as he asserted that "Allah rewarded me to participate with my brothers in al‐Falluja, and I came to know the Sheikh Abu Musaab al‐Zarqawi...closely, and he assigned me to a job outside of Iraq." In this statement, al-Qarawi criticized the Lebanese army and intelligence forces for not providing full rights to the Sunni population in Lebanon, claiming that targeting Sunnis is the crime of "Hezbollah with its arms spread into sensitive positions in the army." He also warned that "Hezbollah remains deceptive...and continues with its true project to dominate...Lebanon." According to al-Qarawi, "we in Abdullah Azzam Brigades do not ally with one political team against another, and we don't care about the dirty political game going on in Lebanon, and we alienate ourselves from it, and we don't call upon the Sunni people to stand behind this or that. But, we care about the Sunni people and their religious, political and economic interests, and to rise up and take them back with serious efforts."

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