The head of the mainstream Fatah movement, Sultan Abul Aynain, Wednesday accused what he called a 'foreign intelligence service' of masterminding the murders of two of its members in a Lebanon refugee camp. 'A non-Lebanese intelligence service was behind the crime which cost the lives of two Fatah members in Ein el-Hilweh,' Abul Aynain told a news conference in the southern Rashidiyeh camp near Tyre. He refused to specify which third country he was referring to, despite repeated questions from journalists.'It's a crime which is aimed at destabilising the camps and sowing discord with the communities that live around them,' the Fatah commander said. He called for 'the murderers to be handed over to Fatah as quickly as possible.'
Two Fatah members, one Palestinian and one Syrian, were killed in Monday's ambush in Ein el-Hilweh, east of the southern port of Sidon. A Palestinian security source inside the camp said the attack was carried out by five militants from a small Islamist group called Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of Damascus). Jund al-Sham and another Islamist group, Fatah al-Islam, have enhanced their presence in Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps in the past few months. Their main base is in Syria as their name ( Sham ) implies.
Lebanese authorities have accused Fatah al-Islam of working in Lebanon on the instruction of the Syrian intelligence. The group was also accused by Lebanese authorities of being behind the 13 February explosion in Ain Alak near Bekfaya, southeast Lebanon, which killed three people and wounded 20.