The leader of the al-Qaeda inspired Fatah Islam group fled a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon a day before its fall into the hands of Lebanese army earlier this month, the country's prosecutor general confirmed Monday. Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza added in a statement that a DNA test on a body suspected to be that of the group leader Shaker al-Abssi proved it was not his.
The finding countered earlier reports by al-Abssi's wife, who had identified a body in a hospital as her husband's. According to the AP, Mirza also said that a recently captured Fatah Islam member had told authorities that al-Abssi fled the camp the night of Sept. 1.
Dozens of Fatah Islam militants died as they tried to escape from the Nahr el-Bared camp the next day. Some managed to escape and were pursued by Lebanese forces in the countryside. A total of 164 Lebanese soldiers and 222 militants were killed in the over three-month long standoff, and more than 200 captured.
Al-Abssi's wife, his daughter, and also a Palestinian Muslim cleric who mediated between the army and Fatah al-Islam during the battles, had identified a body in a Tripoli hospital morgue as al-Abssi's. But authorities took samples from al-Abssi's daughter and also his brother in Jordan, for conclusive DNA testing.
"The result (shows) the corpse in the hospital morgue in Tripoli does not belong to the suspect Shaker al-Abssi," Mirza's statement said.
But in Jordan, al-Absi's older brother, Abdul-Razak al-Absi, slammed Lebanese authorities' testing and claimed the leader was indeed dead. "These people don't know how to carry out DNA tests, it's wrong, my brother is dead," al-Abssi's eldest brother said in a telephone interview.
"My brother's body was identified by his wife, his daughters and five Muslim scholars who knew him, so how can he be alive?" the brother told The Associated Press.
Mirza said that two days ago a Yemeni citizen identified as Nasser Mohammed Yahya Shiba, 24, was arrested in the Minyeh region north of the camp. He testified that he had left Nahr el-Bared with al-Abssi and three other militants shortly before midnight Sept. 1.
"Shaker al-Abssi was in good health, wearing an explosive belt and carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle, magazines and hand grenades," Mirza's statement quoted the Yemeni suspect as saying.
