Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

---

	Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Living Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters

Settling scores?

By Zeina Khodr

In 48 hours two bombs went off in the southern port city of Sidon. Both explosions targeted officials loyal to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. One was killed and the other critically wounded. No group claimed responsibility.

The bombings were not unusual. Inter-Palestinian feuds are commonplace in refugee camps across Lebanon, where power struggles between supporters and opponents of Arafat and his peace deals with Israel often turn bloody.

Amin Kayed, 55, a lieutenant colonel in Arafat's mainstream Fatah faction and his 45-year-old wife Fadia Maarouf Assi were killed in a drive-by shooting near the Ayn Al-Helweh refugee camp in Sidon. Two men in a car opened fire at the couple with machine guns as they were driving along. They were killed instantly after sustaining 20 gunshot wounds.

Two days after that attack, Kayed's top aide was critically wounded and lost both of his legs in a booby-trapped car explosion. The bomb went off as Jamal Al-Dayekh, 40, opened the door of his car parked in front of his house. Al-Dayekh was a spokesman for Fatah in Ayn Al-Helweh. He is now in a stable condition at a hospital in Sidon.

There are conflicting reports on the reasons behind the attacks. Some Palestinian officials are convinced that the bombings were politically motivated.

"All assassinations have to do with politics and the two men had no personal problems with anyone or any group," Colonel Munir Makdah, the head of the Fatah command for the Liberation of All of Palestine told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Sultan Abul-Aynen, Fatah's chief in Lebanon, voiced the same view. "These were political attacks with the aim of causing conflict and chaos in the ranks of the PLO in Lebanon," he told the Weekly. "You cannot rule out Israel's involvement."

But a well-informed Palestinian source disagreed. "One was a revenge attack and the other personal," the source told the Weekly. "They were not related in any way to politics or differences in positions vis-à-vis the Middle East peace process."

It was not the first time assailants have tried to kill Kayed. He was forced to leave the Ayn Al-Helweh camp by rival Palestinian factions in 1990. They accused him of being behind the assassination of Sheikh Hisham Shreidi, the former leader of Esbat Al-Ansar, a militant Sunni group that opposes Arafat and wields influence in the camp.

"Kayed's killing was in revenge for the assassination of Shreidi," the source said.

Esbat Al-Ansar is now led by Ahmed Abdel-Karim Saadi who is known as Abu Mehjen. He is wanted by the Lebanese authorities after a Beirut court convicted him of masterminding the killing of Sheikh Nizar Halabi, the leader of the Association for Islamic Philanthropic Projects in 1995. Abu Mehjen's whereabouts are unknown but many believe he is in Ayn Al-Helweh.

But Sultan Abul-Aynen challenges those who claim Kayed was killed in retaliation for Shreidi's death. "First of all, Kayed had officially resigned from the Fatah command over a year ago. He has been working on a doctorate on the Arab-Israeli conflict ever since. And explain to me then why Dayekh was attacked less than two days later."

Makdah also ruled out "revenge". "The Shreidi case is an old one. Kayed did not have problems with anyone and Jamal who is a friend of mine had no problems. In fact, he is really confused. I spoke to him in the hospital and he had no information concerning the reasons behind the bombing. He believed the Israeli Mossad was responsible," Makdah claimed.

Other reports said the two men belonged to an intelligence unit -- the Preventive Security Service -- based in Ramallah on the West Bank and headed by Colonel Jibril Rajoub. The reports said they had been working to set up an office in the camp to liaise with Arafat's West Bank command which is opposed by the majority of Palestinians here.

"These reports are baseless," Abul-Aynen exclaimed. "There is only one central command office in Lebanon that deals with the PLO's central command office [in the Palestinian territories]."

The Palestinian source said "Dayekh used to liaise between the PLO and the Lebanese army. He used to pass on information and maybe he was targeted by some people about whom he had information."

The Lebanese authorities have launched investigations into the attacks. "We have been cooperating with them and providing them with all the information available to us," Abul-Aynen said.

Lebanese security services are in contact with officials of the various Palestinian factions in the country but they do not enter the camps. At the end of the Lebanese war in 1990 the army was sent to most parts of the country except to the Israeli occupied south and the Palestinian camps. Palestinians were not disarmed but they were confined to their camps.

"I do not know who was behind the attacks or the reasons but all factions have condemned the bombings. I believe these actions definitely serve -- whether directly or indirectly -- the purposes of our enemy Israel," Ghazi As-Assadi, member of the Palestinian Popular Committee at Ayn Al-Helweh told the Weekly. "Any explosions or killings destabilise Lebanon. No Palestinian wants that. They will also affect the improving relations between Palestinian refugees and the Lebanese government."

The Lebanese authorities have recently taken to easing travel restrictions imposed on the refugees so as to improve their living conditions.

Abul-Aynen and Makdah expect more "political assassinations" in the near future.

But like most of the former killings and bombings targeting Palestinian officials, the real motives are not public knowledge and the perpetrators are almost never apprehended.

	weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg