Abu Yusuf Shaker Yusuf Hasan al-Absi (1955–2008?; ) was a veteran

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

guerrilla and

Fatah al-Islam Fatah al-Islam () is a Sunni Islamist militant group established in November 2006 in a Palestinian refugee camp, located in Lebanon. It has been described as a militant jihadistLe Figaro (16 April 2007)"Fatah Al-Islam: the new terrorist threat ...

's leader. On December 10, 2008, Fatah al-Islam announced that al-Absi was believed to have been killed by Syrian 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 Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

Fatah al-Intifada Fatah al-Intifada () is a Palestinian militant faction founded by Said Muragha, better known as Abu Musa. Officially it refers to itself as the Palestinian National Liberation Movement - "Fatah" (), the identical name of the major Fatah movem ...

, 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 (), also known as the Independence uprising (), was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon (especially in the capital Beirut) triggered by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The popular movemen ...

rally planned to commemorate the second anniversary of the

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

of the former Lebanese prime minister,

Rafik Hariri Rafic Bahaa El Deen al-Hariri (; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005) was a Lebanese businessman and politician who served as prime minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2004. Hariri headed five cabinets during his tenu ...

. 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'' (, 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 for its distinctive green-tinted pages. Although pu ...

'' January 15, 2008
Shakir al-Abssi
at the History Commons * from leadership {{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 jihadist groups