Jund Ansar Allah

Jund Ansar Allah ( ar, جند أنصار الله, rtl=yes, ) was an armed Islamist organization operating in the Gaza Strip. It was founded in November 2008. On 14 August 2009, the group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa, announced the establishment of an al-Qaeda inspired Islamic emirate in the Palestinian territories and criticized the ruling power, Hamas, for failing to enforce Sharia law. In response, Hamas attacked the organization, resulting in 24 people being killed, including Moussa, and Jund Ansar Allah ceased to exist.

Background

Jund Ansar Allah was established in November 2008 by Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa, who had headed a Salafi organization in Gaza since the 1980s, and Khalid Banat (Abu Abdullah Suri), who claimed to have fought with leading al Qaeda figures including Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

Jund Ansar Allah was an al-Qaeda inspired organization ideologically affiliated with the movement for global jihad. Moussa, an "Egyptian-educated physician-turned-cleric," was the group's spiritual leader. He left his medical practice in Rafah to become one of the most influential preachers in the southern Gaza Strip. In his Friday sermons that attracted thousands of young men, Moussa argued that Hamas had failed to properly institute Sharia law and had become too lenient. Hamas repeatedly warned Moussa and his followers to abandon his mosque in Rafah.

Jund Ansar Allah remained relatively unknown until 8 June 2009 when it launched a military operation against an IDF force near the Nahal Oz border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF successfully foiled the attack, which incorporated the use of horses booby-trapped with IEDs and explosives. Five Jund Ansar Allah operatives died in the operation.

The organization also clashed with Hamas. On 22 July 2009, three Jund Ansar Allah militants holed up in a building in Khan Younis surrendered in a standoff with Hamas police.

Armed activities

On 8 June 2009 the group carried out a raid on the Karni border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Ten individuals from the group rode into battle on horses laden with large quantities of explosives, with at least three of them being shot dead by Israeli troops. Israeli officials said several of the men had been wearing explosive belts, and suspected they had been attempting to kidnap a soldier.Profile: Jund Ansar Allah
BBC News 15-08-2009

Hamas officials also blamed the group for the bombings of several internet cafes, seen as a source of immorality, and of a wedding party attended by relatives of the West Bank-based Fatah leader, Muhammad Dahlan, in which fifty people were injured. Jund Ansar Allah denied any responsibility for the latter attack, and Fatah leaders blamed Hamas. In August 2009, a senior Hamas official told The Jerusalem Post that Jund Ansar Allah received its weapons from former Fatah policemen and security officials in the southern Gaza Strip and that the aim of its attacks were to "defame" Hamas.

Declaration of an Islamic emirate

On Friday, 14 August 2009, Moussa unexpectedly declared the creation of an Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip before 100 of his armed followers at the Ibn-Taymiyah mosque in Rafah.Hamas says Gaza now under control
BBC News 15-08-2009 During his sermon, Moussa condemned Hamas for failing to implement Sharia law and acting like a "secular government."

Regarding the sermon as a challenge to its rule over the Gaza Strip, Hamas forces surrounded the mosque and demanded those inside surrender. Exchanges of gunfire erupted into a seven-hour battle in which Hamas fighters sealed off the entire neighborhood and fired rocket-propelled grenades at the mosque. During the firefight, 24 Palestinians were killed and more than 130 injured. The dead included twelve Jund Ansar Allah members, six Hamas members and six non-combatants, including three young children aged 8, 10 and 13. An Egyptian security official said a three-year-old boy across the border with Egypt was critically wounded by a bullet from the fighting. Moussa killed himself and a Hamas fighter by detonating an explosive belt strapped around his waist after being trapped in his house. The house was dynamited by Hamas forces.Mai Yaghi
Gaza clashes between Hamas, Islamist radicals kill 13
AFP 14-08-2009 Abu-Jibril Shimali, head of Hamas' Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the southern Gaza Strip, died in the fighting. Israel believes that Shimali orchestrated the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a June 2006 cross-border raid.

Hamas did not permit media coverage of the event, barring journalists from entering Rafah or interviewing the wounded.

Following the clashes, a number of al-Qaida-affiliated groups condemned Hamas as an apostate movement that committed "massacre" and charged Hamas's actions to "serve the interest of the Jewish usurpers of Palestine and the Christians who are fighting Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Somalia".Gaza's radical Islamists: Hamas serves the Jewish usurpers
JPost, August 20, 2009

Websites associated with Fatah later released cellphone footage of what appeared to be Hamas executing Jund Ansar Allah fighters during the clash. The video showed black-clad Hamas militants gathering several men from the rebel group in a mosque courtyard, and then mowing them down in a fierce burst of gunfire. Some of the Jund Ansar Allah men were shown lying motionless and bleeding on the ground. In two scenes, Hamas militants appeared to be shooting captives execution-style at close range, and bodies were seen falling to the ground. In another scene, a group of Jund Ansar Allah captives were seen standing motionless against a wall a few meters away. Israeli television Channel 10 also broadcast a recording of what it said was the Hamas military communication channel, ordering Hamas forces to execute everyone. There was no immediate comment from Hamas officials. However, Hamas had previously denied that an execution took place at the site, or that members of Jund Ansar Allah were "massacred."Avi Issacharoff

Haaretz 26-08-2009

Following the battle, Jund Ansar Allah vowed to attack Hamas security compounds and mosques in retaliation. On 29 August, bombs exploded inside a security compound and near a mosque in Gaza City, according to security officials. Nobody was injured in the attacks. Jund Ansar al-Jihad wal Sunna, a previously unknown Islamist group, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Hamas security headquarters, declaring: "We urge our jihadist brothers to join forces to conduct painful joint attacks against those miscreant apostates amasand end their reign." The Associated Press said that "the two explosions appear dto be revenge attacks against Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers," and suggested a link with Jund Ansar Allah.Rizek Abdul Jawad
2 bombs explode in Gaza compound, outside mosque
Associated Press 29-08-2009

Ideology

A message issued on the group's website and jihadist forums on the day of the clash with Hamas stated:

"The soldiers of Tawhid (monotheism) will not rest ... until the entirety of Muslim lands are liberated and until our imprisoned Aqsa (mosque) is purified from the desecration of the accursed Jews".

See also

* Army of Islam (Gaza Strip)
*Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin

References

External links

Profile: Jund Ansar Allah
BBC News
FACTBOX-Five facts about Jund Ansar Allah
Reuters
Who was Abu Noor al-Maqdisi?
(''Asharq Al-Awsat'')
{{Militant Islamism in the Middle East
Islamist groups
Jihadist groups
Defunct Palestinian militant groups
Gaza Strip
2008 establishments in the Palestinian territories
Organizations established in 2008