Palestinian gunman found dead in refugee camp in Lebanon

Residents find body of Jund al-Sham member, whose group is responsible for bombings and gunbattles in Lebanon and Syria, tortured near Sidon.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Lebanon clashes 298.88 (photo credit: AP)
Lebanon clashes 298.88
(photo credit: AP)
Residents of a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon found the body of an Islamic militant Friday who had been tortured and killed, local Palestinian officials and doctors said. The body of Saleh Azmi Abdullah, 28, was found in a vegetable market in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the city of Sidon, said Maher Shabayta, a local official with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. Shabayta identified Abdullah as a member of the militant Jund al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of al-Qaida and has clashed with Fatah members and Lebanese troops based around the camp. The body was taken to al-Nidaa hospital, where medical officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said Abdullah was subjected to electric shocks before he was strangled. Jund al-Sham has been blamed or claimed responsibility for a number of bombings and gunbattles in Lebanon and Syria. Syrian officials have portrayed it as the most active militant group in their country.