Top Jund al-Sham Official Found Dead in Ain al-Hilweh

25/12/2010 Senior Jund al-Sham commander Ghandy al-Sahmarani was found killed in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

Sahramani, whose death circumstances are still unknown, was found with his hands tied with wires and with a gunshot wound to the mouth.

Fatah commander in Lebanon Munir al-Maqdah explained that Ghandy "Abu Ramez" al-Sahmarani, a native of the northern city of Tripoli, was an official in what is left of the Jund al-Sham organization. He said that Sahmarani does not move from one area to another unless a dispute between him and any member of the group erupted, adding that he has been residing in the Taamir sector at the northern entrance to Ain al-Hilweh for years. The Fatah official said that it was likely that Sahmarani was killed in Taamir with his body being placed inside the refugee camp, noting that he did not hear any gunshots in any area of Ain al-Hilweh.

Maqdah told AFP that Sahmarani, a Lebanese, had been "a friend" of Abdel Rahman Awad, the presumed chief of Fatah al-Islam, the terrorist group which fought a deadly battle in 2007 against the Lebanese national army at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in the country's north.

Meanwhile, the head of the Palestinian Armed Struggle Mohammed Abdel Hamid Issa, known as al-Lino, said that the situation in the camp is under control despite the security caution being exercised. He added that Sahmarani was forbidden from entering Ain al-Hilweh because he was wanted by the security forces, especially Fatah. The circumstances of his death are still unknown and the Palestinian Armed Struggle's investigations are underway, he stated. Al-Lino denied Fatah and his organization's involvement in the crimes, stressing that everyone was surprised by the discovery of the body.

Jund al-Sham is a radical militant group believed to be based in Ain al-Hilweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, and linked to Al-Qaeda.

Al Qaeda type leader killed in Lebanon ...

"... "The body of Ghandi Sahmarani, leader of Jund al-Sham, was found this morning in a garage inside the camp," Fatah official Mounir Makdah told AFP.
An AFP photographer who saw Sahmarani's body in the morgue in the southern coastal city of Sidon said his hands had been bound with wire behind his back and it appeared he had been killed with a single shot to the mouth.
Makdah said that Sahmarani, a Lebanese, had been "a friend" of Abdel Rahman Awad, the presumed chief of the shadowy Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist group which fought a deadly battle in 2007 against the Lebanese army at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in the country's north.in August, Lebanese troops killed Awad, a Palestinian, and his aide, "Abu Bakr" Mubarak, in a shootout in the eastern town of Chtaura in the Bekaa Valley.
Jund al-Sham, the Arabic for "Army of Greater Syria," is a radical Sunni militant group believed to be based in Ain al-Hilweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, and linked to Al-Qaeda...."

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