A Communiqué Claiming That It Represents Al-Qaeda in Syria Threatens Lebanon With "Rivers of Blood" If It Does Not Stop The Attack On Nahr Al-Bared

On May 25, 2007, Islamist websites posted a 7-minute video presenting a communiqué titled "The Military Commander of the Al-Qaeda in Balad Al-Sham" ("Al-Sham" is the historical term for Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine). The communiqué called the Lebanese military attack on the Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp "a new Crusader war" and demanded that the Lebanese military withdraw its forces from the area of the camp. Lest, the communiqué said, "rivers of blood" would be spilled and "no Crusader will have a safe place in Lebanon."

The following are excerpts from the communiqué:

"Today a new Crusader [attack] is waged, on the artificial pretext of a 'war on terror,' referring to the Fath Al-Islam movement... Hundreds of homes [in the Nahr Al-Bared camp] have been destroyed along with their occupants, under barbaric and unprecedented shelling by all types of weapons, which they never used even once against the Jews.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ruba'i: A Legacy of Reform, Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 465 - September 17, 2008

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