Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
QDe.007
ASBAT AL-ANSAR
Date on which the narrative summary became available on the Committee's website
07 April 2011 - 12:00pm
Date(s) on which the narrative summary was updated
03 June 2014 - 12:00pm
Reason for listing

Asbat al-Ansar was listed on 6 October 2001 pursuant to paragraph 8(c) of resolution 1333 (2000) as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” Al-Qaida (QDe.004).

Additional information

Asbat al-Ansar is a group based in Lebanon composed primarily of Palestinians with links to Al-Qaida (QDe.004). The group has engaged in violence to achieve political ends.

Asbat al-Ansar has secretly pledged allegiance to Al-Qaida and maintained close ties with the Al-Qaida network, including the provision of fighters and financial assistance. Asbat al-Ansar has its base of operations in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, Lebanon, with more than 290 armed members. Lebanese authorities detained a cell of Al-Qaida in Iraq (QDe.115) extremists in June 2007 in the Bekaa Valley that had been training with Asbat al-Ansar and was possibly planning terrorist attacks throughout Lebanon against the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) or other targets.

Asbat al-Ansar first emerged in the early 1990s. In the mid-1990s the group assassinated Lebanese religious leaders and bombed nightclubs, theaters and liquor stores. It was involved in clashes in northern Lebanon in December 1999 and carried out a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the Russian Embassy in Beirut in January 2000. In September 2004, operatives with links to the group were involved in planning terrorist operations against the Italian Embassy, the Ukrainian Consulate General and Lebanese government offices. In October 2004, Mahir al-Sa’di, a member of Asbat al-Ansar, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for plotting to assassinate the then Ambassador of the United States to Lebanon, in 2000.

Asbat al-Ansar operatives have been involved in fighting against the Multi-National Forces in Iraq since at least 2005 and several members of the group have been killed there. In 2007, Asbat al-Ansar remained focused on supporting fighting in Iraq and planning attacks against, among others, UNIFIL and the Lebanese security forces.