<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile Ñ Hamas recruiting Islamists in Jordan camps to fight in Gaza

Hamas recruiting Islamists in Jordan camps to fight in Gaza

Friday, September 3, 2009   E-Mail this story   Free Headline Alerts

AMMAN Ñ Palestinian Islamists have been recruited to leave their native Jordan to fight for the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

Jordanian sources said young Palestinians have been recruited to join the Hamas regime or Al Qaida-aligned Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip.

They said some of the recruits were also ordered to smuggle out of Jordan light weapons, ammunition and detonators to help in the Hamas war against Israel.

"The recruitment is taking place in the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan," a Jordanian source said. "We know of Hamas recruiters or clergy who either help Palestinians to get to Gaza or simply encourage them to do so on their own."

On Aug. 12, the Jordanian State Security Court began a trial of six young men accused of forming a cell to smuggle recruits and weapons to the Gaza Strip. The court said the suspects, four Palestinians and two Jordanians, tried to join the Hamas war against Israel in January 2009. Three of the suspects were declared fugitives and were being tried in absentia.

An indictment identified the commander of the alleged cell as Osama Abu Kabir. Abu Kabir was said to have formed a Hamas-aligned cell in early 2009 in an attempt to bring recruits and weapons to the Gaza Strip.

Abu Kabir was said to have recruited the five other defendants. The indictment said the alleged commander established a headquarters for the cell in the home of one of the members in the southern Jordanian town of Maan. Other members of the cell were identified as Mohammed Zeidan and Mohammed Abu Awrah, all of whom pleaded not guilty.

Jordanian sources said Hamas recruits aimed to arrive in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, linked by ferry to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. From Sinai, the recruits were expecting to infiltrate the Gaza Strip with the help of Bedouin smugglers.

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