Osbat al-Nour

Osbat al-Nour (Band of Light) is an extreme militant group that professes allegiance to a Salafist interpretation of Islam.

Ain al-Hilweh 2003

In May 2003 fighting broke out between members of Osbat al-Nour and Fatah militia members in the south Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh after the near-fatal shooting of Osbat al-Nour leader Abdullah Shraidi on May 17, in which one of Abdullah's bodyguards and a bystander were killed. The shooting occurred while returning from the funeral of a Fatah member and family relative, Ibrahim Shraidi who was gunned down by an unknown assailant. Roughly 200 Osbat al-Nour fundamentalist fighters attacked Fatah offices. Eight people were killed and 25 wounded in the fighting at Ain al-Hilweh. Schools in the Ain al-Hilweh camp were shut and most stores kept their shutters down at the height of the fighting, which provoked an exodus by hundreds of camp residents. Two months after the ambush Abdullah Shraidi died from wounds received during the attack. Fatah agreed to a ceasefire after failing to defeat the fundamentalists in the camp.

Links with al-Qaeda

Osbat al-Nour is said to be an offshoot of a larger Osbat al-Ansar, which is on the United States' list of terrorist groups because of its alleged links to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda.