"And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness, the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief. "

Khalil Gibran (How I Became a Madman)

Lübnan Marunîleri / Yasin Atlıoğlu

NEWS AND ARTICLES / HABERLER VE MAKALELER

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Syria kills 'Islamist militants'

SOURCE: BBC News

Two Islamist militants have been killed in armed clashes with Syrian forces north-west of Damascus, the official Syrian news agency says.

Mohammed Ali Nassif and Yasser Adawi, members of the militant group Jund al-Sham, were killed near the mountain resort of Zabadani, Sana said.

There were several clashes between Syrian troops and militants last year.
In December, two alleged members of Jund al-Sham were shot dead near the northern city of Aleppo.

One member of the Syrian security services was slightly wounded during the raid near the resort, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Damascus.

"Rifles, books, statements inciting extremism and terrorist acts as well as a computer were confiscated from the terrorists' location," Sana added.

Islamists

Syrian forces have been tracking Tanzim Jund al-Sham lil-Jihad wa al-Tawhid (Organisation of the Soldiers of the Levant for Jihad and Monotheism) since November 2004, when a member was killed attempting to plant a roadside bomb.

The group's leader, Abu Umar, was killed in a raid on an apartment in southern Damascus in June, Sana reported at the time.

It is not known whether Syria's Jund al-Sham is the same group as one that operates under the same name and said it had carried out a bomb attack on the Egyptian Sinai resort of Taba in October last year which killed 34 people.

A namesake also said it was behind a suicide bombing on a theatre in Qatar in March 2005 which killed a British teacher.