Report: Head of Takfiri Network in Constant Contact with Ayman al-Zawahiri

Abu Mohammed Toufic Taha, the head the takfiri network that has been recently discovered in Lebanon, is one of the most active members of al-Qaida in Lebanon, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday.

It said that he is also in constant contact, through the internet, with al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri from whom he receives orders and directions.

He is also in contact with a Saudi member of al-Qaida, Majed Abu Mohammed al-Majed, who was charged with recruiting fundamentalist groups and sending them to a number of Arab and European countries, added the report.

Majed had even lived in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon where he and Taha worked for months on forming several extremist cells in Lebanon, it said.

A security source told al-Joumhouria that Taha, who was born in Ain el-Hilweh in 1962, is a former member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Several arrest warrants had been issued against him for his involvement in the bomb attack that targeted Lebanese soldiers in the northern city of Tripoli in 2008 and for organizing assaults against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

He has also been found to be involved in attacks against the Lebanese army.

The source revealed that Taha “enjoyed a solid friendship” with the head of the Fatah al-Islam group, Shaker al-Absi, with whom he worked with during the events of Nahr al-Bared in 2007.

Taha also received orders from former leader Fatah al-Islam Abdul Rahman Awad, who was killed in an army ambush in Shtoura in 2010.

The Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon was at the heart of clashes between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam group between May and September 2007.

Absi disappeared at the end of the conflict and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Taha later began forming extremist cells in Lebanon, which included members of Fatah al-Islam, in cooperation with Majed and the head of the Jund al-Sham group in Ain el-Hilweh Sheikh Osama Amin al-Shehabi, reported al-Joumhouria.

Investigations revealed that Taha was responsible for three cells aimed at carrying out attacks in Lebanon.

The first cell, located in the Iqlim al-Kharroub region, has been planning on poisoning water wells and setting off explosives in al-Mukhtara and al-Jahlieh in order to create inter-Druze strife.

The second cell, found in al-Sarafand in the South, is behind the repeated firing of rockets from southern Lebanon towards Israel, which were aimed at sparking a war between Lebanon and the Jewish state, said al-Joumhouria.

The third cell, found in Lala in the Bekaa valley, was planning on kidnapping foreigners in order to swap them with Fatah al-Islam inmates in Roumieh prison.

It was also planning on blowing up the Jeb Jennine power plant

The newspaper stated that these cells have been uncovered and its members were detained.

Taha was also in contact with similar cells outside of Lebanon, it added.

The takfiri network, which was planning on carrying out attacks against the Lebanese army, was uncovered after the army intelligence arrested a Lebanese national who had extensive activity with al-Qaida.

He confessed the details of the takfiri cell, which includes seven individuals: six Lebanese and Taha, who is Palestinian.

Two of these individuals are also members of the army, said al-Joumhouria.

The six Lebanese nationals have been arrested, with one confessing that the network was aimed at attacking the army, creating chaos in Lebanon, and “avenging the Fatah al-Islam martyrs,” it continued.

Security sources told the newspaper that Taha is still in the Ain el-Hilweh camp and he is under the protection of a well-known Palestinian extremist known as Abu Ahmed al-Mubarak, as well as a number of Jund al-Sham members.

Despite the ongoing contacts with the army command and the Palestinian organizations, it is unlikely that he will be handed over to the Lebanese authorities due to a lack of a unified Palestinian leadership, reported al-Joumhouria.