Osbat al-Nour

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Osbat al-Nour (Band of Light) is an extreme militant group that professes allegiance to the Salafi form of Islam.^[1]

[edit] Ain al-Hilweh 2003

In may of 2003 fighting broke out between members of Osbat al-Nour and Fatah militia members in the south Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh after the near-fatal shooting of Osbat al-Nour leader Abdullah Shraidi on May 17^[2], in which one of Abdullah's bodyguards and a bystander were killed. The shooting occurred while returning from the funeral of a Fatah member and family relative, Ibrahim Shraidi who was gunned down by an unknown assailant.^[3] Roughly 200 Osbat al-Nour fundamentalist fighters attacked Fatah offices. Eight people were killed and 25 wounded in the fighting at Ain al-Hilweh. Schools in the Ain al-Hilweh camp were shut and most stores kept their shutters down at the height of the fighting, which provoked an exodus by hundreds of camp residents. ^[4] Two months after the ambush Abdullah Shraidi died from wounds received during the attack.^[5] Fatah agreed to a ceasefire after failing to defeat the fundamentalists in the camp.^[6]

[edit] Links with al-Qaeda

Osbat al-Nour is said to be an offshoot of a larger Osbat al-Ansar, which is on the United States' list of terrorist organizations because of its alleged links to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda.^[7]