Submit your comments on this article | |
Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
Pro-al-Qaeda fighters train in Gaza Strip | |
2008-09-02 | |
The masked gunmen threw themselves to the ground, rolled over and came up firing their assault rifles at an imaginary target. Jaysh al-Ummah, or the Army of the Nation, a Palestinian Islamist group modeled on the ideology of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, was training for battle with Israel.
"Run, run, take the ground, shoot," Abu Hafss, Jaysh al-Ummah's leader, cried as some 25 gunmen, all clad in black, performed drills. Jaysh al-Ummah refuses to say how many members it has in the Gaza Strip, territory seized by Hamas Islamists from the largely secular Fatah faction in June 2007. Hamas allows it to operate, with the unwritten understanding that it stays out of internal Palestinian politics and does not use force to implement its beliefs on the people of Gaza. | |
Posted by:Fred |