Osbat al Ansar: "We want to kidnap more Israeli soldiers"

Beirut

The Spanish Network Radio Cadena SER, reaches the franchise of Al Qaeda in Lebanon. In a exclusive interview with the salafist group Osbat Al Ansar, the representative of Al Qaeda in the region , they say that The Middle East and Al Andalus will be an Islamic Caliphate once again . The salafist are the perpetrators of the recent attacks on Northern Israel and have their headquarters in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain Al Helwa, located in the town of Saida, on the southern Lebanon.

U.S. includes Osbat Al Ansar in the list of terrorist organizations linked and financed to Al Qaeda. In 2007 Osbat Al Ansar , publicly proclaimed its support for Al Qaeda in Iraq , and Al Ansar members had fought in Iraq with Al Qaeda against the coalition forces. In a exclusive interview with the Spanish Network Radio Cadena SER, the group's leader, Abu Sharif said that "Osbat Al Ansar and Al Qaeda are the same group" although we are in Lebanon dedicated to defend our country which is occupied by Israel". ?We, - says the leader of Osbat Al Ansar - accept the defence of any occupied Islamic country. If we were in Iraq we would be shooting altogether with Al Qaeda in Iraq and if we were in Afghanistan we would do the same.

From Osbat Al Ansar's point of view, the kidnap of an Israeli soldier as Gilad Shalit is not enough.Their leader, Abu Sharif said: " we believe that God will help us capture more soldiers". We have eleven thousand prisioners in israeli jails and nobody in the media talks about them". Nobody in Europe - says Osbat Al Ansar's leader - talks about them, nor in the arab countries. We hope that God will help us capture more soldiers to exchange for our prisioners".

Regarding Unifil, Abu Sharif said: "we don't have any problems with Unifil troops led by Spain". For Osbat Al Ansar's leader, Unifil is in Lebanon because of a lebanese government's decision and in his opinion, they are not occupying the land as in Iraq or Afganistan. "Unifil is doing a good job for civil people in southern Lebanon. They are stopping Israel's ground movements and we are now happy with them".

Osbat Al Ansar is a Salafist group with more than 300 well trained jihadist troops and around 500 followers. The U.S National Security Department considers the group as very active and dangerous in the terrorism arena. OAA is the mark used by Al Qaeda to operate in Lebanon and defend the same postulates than Global Al Qaeda : war of beliefs rather than a territorial war. The leader of Osbat al Ansar, Abu Sharif, explains that the purpose of the group is to return the old Islamic Caliphate State. "We need to return the status quo that Profet Mohamed let us. Christians, Jews and Muslims have never lived in peace. Only with a strong Islamic state. So , there must be a way back, a return to the Islamic Caliphate. The Jews were murdered in Europea and have found peace only when they returned to Palestine. So our goal is to return the Islamic State and regain Palestina for the Palestinian people.

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Another objective shared by Al Qaeda y OAA is the Reconquest of Al Andalus ( The Reconquest refers to the eight centuries during which the Christian Kings of the Spanish Kindgdoms gradually reclaimed their country form the Moors, who had invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711). Al Andalus, said the group's leader, was an Islamic territory and some leader began there. Many European cities have the art and culture of Al Andalus. When Muslim leaders began to separate Al Andalus, at the same time began the weakness; so today's leader must learn the lesson from the past, from what happened.

The lead of Osbat Al Ansar considers that Al Andalus will return to the Islamic State. "If you are alive, you will find that your live is more comfortable in a Islamic State. If you are not alive, then will be your descendents the ones who will live under the Islamic authority , and live will be more comfortable and safer than now not only in security but also financially . You Christians and we , Muslism will live together under the Islamic authority.

The leader of Osbat Al Ansar said that they do not receive any money from the government. "No government gives us any money through banks in an open way, after the former president Bush freezed our funds in his open war against the Islamic Word". We accept any help - says the leader of Osbat Al Ansar - that any muslim wants to give us in order to help other muslims in the world. "Osbat Al Ansar accepts any international money that we can receive to defend Palestine and our people in Palestine".

Regarding the question about their relationship with Hamas, after The Palestinian resistence group killed the salafist cleric Abdul Latif Musa, who proclaimed an Islamic State in Rafah, Osbat al Ansar said that they respect their way although they made a big mistake last summer in Rafah. The leader of Osbat Al Ansar said that Hamas made a mistake killing the leader and attacking the mosque. "When Hamas does things well, we say so and when they do things wrong , we say too. Any way Abu Sharif said that if Israel attacks Gaza again they will help Hamas.