Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades
The Martyrs Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades ( Arabic كتائب الشهيد أبو علي مصطفى, DMG Katāʾib aš-Šahīd Abū ʿAlī Muṣṭafā ; English : Martyr Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades ) are the militant or military arm of the Marxist-Lenist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the entire Palestinian autonomous regions ( West Bank , East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip ).
Origin and history
Before the brigades were founded, there were three large groups as the military arm of the PFLP: the Martyrs Ghassan Kanafani Brigades , the Martyrs Wadi Haddad Brigades and the Red Eagles (Arabic: an-Nasr al-Ahmar ).
The name of the military arm is derived from the former General Secretary of the PFLP Abu Ali Mustafa , who in 2001 - shortly after his election as General Secretary - was killed in a targeted killing operation by the Israeli army with two rockets fired at his study. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades were best known as the military arm of the PFLP during the Al-Aqsa Intifada .
When an appeal against suicide attacks was published in 2002, funded by the European Union and signed by some Palestinian intellectuals, the military arm of the PFLP in particular responded with a sharp countercall. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades declared their solidarity with Islamist groups by claiming that the choice of weapons (including suicide attacks) was due to the “patriotic and Islamic resistance forces”. This is done in "agreement with the vast majority of the Palestinian people", which was actually shown by representative polls at the time.
Organizing
Although the Israeli news often speaks of the fact that the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades are more likely to be represented in the West Bank, the military arm of the PFLP is also active in the Gaza Strip and in East Jerusalem .
Ahad Yusuf Musa Olma , who has been in command in the military part of the PFLP since 2000 , has been its commander since the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade was founded. He was arrested in 2002 by law enforcement officers of the Palestinian Autonomous Government together with the General Secretary of the PFLP Ahmad Saadat and three or four other PFLP members .
The main centers of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades are similar to the strongholds of the PFLP. The most important cities with active fighting groups are said to be the cities in the more central West Bank and North Gaza. Most of the fighters in the West Bank are recruited from the student milieu. Most of the Abu-Ali fighters come from Al-Quds University ( East Jerusalem ), Bir Zeit University ( Ramallah ), An-Najah National University ( Nablus ) and the American University of Jenin -Mustafa Brigades.
The number of fighters in the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades or PFLP is difficult to determine. Some assume up to several thousand active and passive members, others - such as the CIA - only put the number of PFLP members at around 800.
Attacks and attacks
The following is a partial list of violent acts by the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades.
2001
- Two car bombs exploded in a suburb of Tel Aviv , injuring six people. The PFLP took responsibility for the attack.
- Killing of the security chief and mayor of four Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Meir Lixenberg .
- During the Al-Aqsa Intifada , the right-wing extremist Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rechaw'am Ze'ewi, was shot dead by a squad from the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades on October 17.
2002
- A suicide attack by a PFLP member in a pizzeria in Karnei Shomron , West Bank, on February 16 killed three Israelis.
- On March 7, a member of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades blew himself up in the lobby of a hotel near the city of Ariel . 15 Israelis were injured, some seriously.
- A suicide attack in a market in Israel on May 19 killed three Israelis. It is still not entirely clear who carried out the attack. Which also Hamas had claimed responsibility for the action.
2003
- On April 24, a 34-year-old security officer was killed and 13 other people injured when a suicide attack took place at a train station in Kfar Save . For the attack which took over Al-Aqsa Brigades of Fatah and the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades responsibility.
- Another suicide attack by the armed arm of the PFLP in December at a bus station near Tel Aviv killed four people and injured over 20.
2004
- A PFLP suicide bomber was killed while detonating his explosives. Some people were slightly injured.
2006
- In response to an Israeli military operation in the West Bank and the arrest of General Secretary Ahmad Saadat , fighters from the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades kidnapped four Americans and two French in Gaza .
- When the Israeli army stormed the Palestinian prison in which Ahmad Saadat and other PFLP members were held, fighting broke out between the armed forces and the imprisoned PFLP members who holed up in the prison.
- In connection with the storming of the prison, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades stormed the representation of the European Union.
2008
- On February 8, a woman and two assassins died in a suicide bombing in Dimona, Israel . Both the al-Aqsa Brigades of Fatah and the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades and a newer group claimed responsibility for the action.
- The Israeli city of Sderot was hit by a rocket.
- On March 4 and 5, Israeli military vehicles were repeatedly attacked with rockets by the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades and Al-Quads Brigades in a combined action. Numerous small skirmishes with Israeli security forces took place during this period.
- On March 8, Women's Day celebrated by the PFLP and the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades , an Israeli soldier was shot at by a sniper from the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades at the border fortifications in the southern Gaza Strip.
- The coastal city of Ashkelon was shelled by units of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade with at least one Qassam missile on March 11th, but did not cause any serious damage.
- Zakim , Sderot and the Karem Abu Salem military area were attacked by Abu Ali Mustafa brigade units with Sumoud rockets.
Web links
- Official site of the PFLP (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerrit Hoekmann: Between olive branch and Kalashnikov. History and Politics of the Palestinian Left , pp. 126ff
- ↑ die-welt-ist-keine-ware.de, accessed on March 16, 2008. Quotation: “Perhaps the most extreme reaction came from the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), known as the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades «. Your countercall of June 23, 2002 is full of scorn for the signatories of the first manifesto. "
- ↑ Suicide attack on a restaurant . In: The world
- ↑ nlarchiv.israel.de ( Memento from April 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Accessed on March 16, 2008. Quote: “[…] the military arm of the PFLP in the West Bank”.
- ↑ nlarchiv.israel.de ( Memento of April 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Accessed on March 16, 2008. Quotation: "[...] and Ahad Olma, commander of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades [...]" ff.
- ↑ Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
- ↑ uni-leipzig.de, accessed on March 17, 2008
- ↑ mfa.gov.il accessed on March 16, 2008. Quotation: “July 2, 2001 - Two separate bombs exploded at about 8:20 am Monday morning in cars in the Tel-Aviv suburb of Yehud. Six pedestrians were lightly injured. Police sources say the bombs were probably set by terrorists. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, claimed responsibility. "
- ↑ shechem.org ( Memento of April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Accessed on March 16, 2008. Quotation: “Councillor and head of security in four settlements, who was shot while traveling in his car in the West Bank on August 27, 2001 ”.
- ^ Israel and the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian Authority - Without distinction - attacks on civilians by Palestinian armed groups . Amnesty International report, page 9
- ↑ a b c d mfa.gov.il accessed on March 16, 2008
- ^ Amnesty International report; Page 9
- ↑ a b c faz.net, accessed on March 23, 2008
- ↑ One Israeli woman, two Palestinians die in attack in Israel ( Memento from June 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ism-germany.net accessed on March 16, 2008
- ↑ pflp.ps accessed on March 16, 2008
- ↑ pflp.ps accessed on March 16, 2008
- ↑ pflp.ps accessed on March 16, 2008
- ↑ Deceptive calm - rocket in southern Ashkelon, accessed February 9, 2014
- ↑ pflp.ps accessed March 23, 2008