A senior Hamas commander is reported among the six killed, 40 injured in the gun battles between Hamas forces and hundreds of members of the al Qaeda offshoot Jund Ansar Allah in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah Friday Aug. 14.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Hamas special units fired mortars and heavy machine guns into the Ibn Thaymas mosque where the Jund leader, Abdullah al Latif Mussa earlier proclaimed the enclave an al Qaeda emirate.
He urged all its inhabitants to defy Hamas rule and take an oath of allegiance to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Hamas reinforcements then besieged and stormed the large Ibn Thaymas mosque after warning several hundred al Qaeda activists and their leader to surrender.
Our counter-terror sources report that in recent months terrorist groups identified with al Qaeda are spreading out through the southern Gaza Strip, establishing their influence with plentiful cash, weapons and explosives.
They accuse Hamas of failing to establish Islamic law in the enclave and using Islam as a mere slogan.
