Abu Yusuf Shaker Yusuf Hasan al-Absi (1955–2008?; ar, شاكر العبسي, Šākir al-ʿAbsī) was a veteran
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
guerrilla and
Fatah al-Islam
Fatah al-Islam ( ar, فتح الإسلام, meaning: ''Conquest of Islam'') is a radical Sunni Islamist group that formed in November 2006 in a Palestinian refugee camp, located in Lebanon. It has been described as a militant jihadistLe Figaro ...
's leader. On December 10, 2008, Fatah al-Islam announced that al-Absi was believed to have been killed by Lebanese security forces.
Biography
Absi joined the Palestinian militants at a young age. He volunteered to fight with the Libyan army in Chad. Later he participated in the 1983 revolt at Lebanon against
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
in
Fatah al-Intifada
Fatah al-Intifada ( ar, فتح الانتفاضة ''Fatah Uprising'') is a Palestinian militant faction founded by Col. Said al-Muragha, better known as Abu Musa. The group is often referred to as the Abu Musa Faction. Officially it refers to ...
, which was led by Abu Moussa Muragheh and Abu Khaled Amleh. He then fought in Afghanistan.
On June 21, 2007, al-Absi and 15 other accused Fatah al-Islam members were formally charged by Lebanese State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza in a criminal case accusing them of carrying out the
February 13, 2007 bus bombings in the mountain village of
Ain-Alaq. Al-Absi and other defendants were also charged with bombing two civilian buses on the eve of a
Cedar Revolution
The Cedar Revolution ( ar, ثورة الأرز, ''thawrat al-arz'') or Independence Uprising ( ar, انتفاضة الاستقلال, ''intifāḍat al-istiqlāl'') was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon (especially in the capital Beirut) tri ...
rally planned to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the
assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister,
Rafik Hariri
Rafik is the given name of:
* Rafik Al-Hariri (1944–2005), business tycoon, former Prime Minister of Lebanon
* Rafik Bouderbal (born 1987), French-born Algerian player currently playing for ES Sétif in the Algerian Championnat National
* Rafik ...
.
All accusations were denied by Fatah al Islam leader and his group, they have claimed that they were deliberately accused by Lebanese government to justify their elimination.
On September 2, 2007, al-Absi was allegedly killed in the north of Tripoli. A body believed to be al-Absi's has undergone DNA and blood tests, and the Lebanese army confirmed it to be his. A total of 39 Islamist militants were killed by Lebanese troops in a pre-dawn attempt to escape from the Palestinian refugee camp in which they had been besieged for three months by the Lebanese army.
However, a DNA test carried out on the body did not confirm his death. The body discovered belonged to a man in his thirties, while Absi was fifty-six at the time. The DNA was also compared to samples from his brother and daughter and found not to match.
In October 2008, al-Absi was reportedly captured in Syria. However, other reports had him still on the run. In November 2008, after a
car bombing in Damascus, al-Absi's daughter Wafa was shown on Syrian TV along with other purported Fatah al-Islam members. On December 10, 2008, the group said Shaker al-Absi and two other members had been ambushed by the Syrian security forces in the small town of Jermana, south of Damascus, and that he had been killed or arrested.
References
External links
The Mystery of Shaker Al Absi''
Asharq Al-Awsat
''Asharq Al-Awsat'' ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, Aš-Šarq al-ʾAwsaṭ, meaning "The Middle East") is an Arabic international newspaper headquartered in London. A pioneer of the "off-shore" model in the Arabic press, the paper is often noted ...
'' January 15, 2008
Shakir al-Abssiat the History Commons
fro
Fatah al-Islamleadership
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abssi, Shaker Al-
1955 births
2008 deaths
Palestinian militants
People sentenced to death in absentia
People from the West Bank
Members of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Leaders of Islamic terror groups