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Lebanon militant leader 'alive'
10/09/2007 18:56 - (SA)
Beirut - The leader of the Fatah al-Islam group was not among fighters killed by Lebanese troops at a refugee camp this month and he might have escaped, the public prosecutor said on Monday.
Palestinian guerrilla Shaker al-Abssi was believed to have been killed when Lebanese troops seized control of the Nahr al-Bared camp on September 2 and ended a 15-week battle that killed more than 400 people.
At the time a Fatah al-Islam prisoner identified a body as Abssi's as did his wife and family members. The Lebanese army ran DNA tests after taking blood from his relatives.
A statement from the public prosecutor's office said the DNA tests showed the body's sample did not match those from Abssi's children and brother.
"Thus, the body preserved in the morgue of Tripoli Governmental Hospital does not belong to... Shaker al-Abssi," the statement signed by the public prosecutor said.
The statement quoted the confession of a Yemeni militant who said he escaped the camp on September 1 with Abssi and others.
"Shaker al-Abssi was in good condition and was wearing a suicide belt and carrying a Kalashnikov rifle, magazines and hand grenades," the statement quoted the Yemeni as saying. He was captured after losing contact with Abssi.
Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia for the killing of a US diplomat in Jordan in 2002. He was later jailed in Syria before setting up Fatah al-Islam in north Lebanon last year.
- Reuters
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