Son of Islamist faction founder shot dead in Lebanese refugee camp

Gunmen shot dead the youngest and last living son of the founder of Osbat Al Ansar in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh before dawn Wednesday.

According to Lebanese reports, two assailants pumped at least 15 rifle shots into Mohammed Shreidi, 18, near his home at the Safsaf neighborhood in the camp that sits on the southeastern edge of Sidon. Palestinian officials said his death was “instantaneous”.

Mohammed’s father, Sheikh Hisham Shreidi, founded Osbat Al Ansar, Arabic for the League of Partisans, in 1989. He was assassinated while delivering a sermon in Al Noor mosque at Safsaf in 1991.

Leadership of the group, the first in Lebanon to go on the US blacklist of “terrorist organizations”, was taken over by Ahmed Abdul Karim Al Saadi, who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Mohjen. However, Sheikh Hisham’s elder son, Abdullah Shreidi, broke away in 2001 and established the Islamist faction of Osbat Al Noor. Abdullah Shreidi died in July last year from wounds he suffered in an assassination attack in May.

Mohammed Shreidi’s death on Wednesday finished off Sheikh Hisham’s entire dynasty. All three assassinations were blamed by Islamists on Yasser Arafat’s Fatah members, who effectively control the one-square-mile camp that houses 75,000 Palestinians.

Mohammed’s assassination took place around 1:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Tuesday) as he was returning to his home in Safsaf.

Source: Albawaba