UPDATE: The Assassination of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon

Related Post: The Killing of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon
Related Post: Senior Fatah Official Assassinated in Lebanon

Lebanese security sources are saying that Kamal Medhat (Kamal Naji), the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's deputy representative in Lebanon killed on Monday in a bombing, was " "a victim of [an] inter-Palestinian feud, due to a clear split within Fatah movement ranks". The Lebanese daily As-Safier said the dispute arose from new arrangements to separate the management of the organisation in Lebanon from Fatah's military wing, which Medhat was to lead.

Another Lebanese source, however, implied that the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam might have had a hand in the assassination. He warned that the Mieh Mieh camp in southern Lebanon, which Medhat was visiting, must not become "another Naher el-Barid camp".. Naher el-Barid, in the north of the country, was destroyed in 2007 in fighting between the Lebanese Amy and Fatah al-Islam.

UPDATE: The Killing of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon

Latest Post: The Assassination of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon
Related Post: Senior Fatah Official Assassinated in Lebanon

There is no new information on yesterday's assassination of Kamal Medhat (Kamal Naji), the Palestinian Liberation Organization's deputy representative in Lebanon, and three others in a bombing outside the Mieh Mieh camp near Sidon.

As we predicted, however, this is not stopping speculation and political point-scoring. For example, Hilal Khashaan, a professor at American University of Beirut, throws out the assertion, "All indicators seem to point in the direction of Iranian agents in Lebanon."

Much more substantial and more serious is the fear that Medhat's assassination may signal an escalation in intra-Palestinian fighting in Lebanon. Nabil Boumonsef of an-Nahar newspaper said yesterday, "I fear that this might be a sign of an expansion of Palestinian-Palestinian conflicts in Lebanon."

Sources are talking of Mehdat's attempt to mediate disputes within Fatah, a claim reinforced by Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan's praise of Mehdat for "a very great role" in easing tensions. (It should also be noted that Hamdan put out his own allegation that Israel was behind the assassination.)

UPDATED: Senior Fatah Official Assassinated in Lebanon

Latest Post: The Assassination of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon
Latest Post: Update - The Killing of Kamal Medhat in Lebanon

Kamal Medhat (Kamal Naji), the deputy representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Lebanon and Fatah's former intelligence chief, Akram Daher, the head of the PLO's youth organisation in Lebanon, and two bodyguards have been killed in a bombing. The attack occurred outside Mieh Mieh refugee camp, near Sidon in southern Lebanon.

Abbas Zaki, the PLO chief in Lebanon, was visiting the camp at the time of the attack but was uninjured. Zaki and Mehdat were offering condolences to the families of two men killed in a family feud in the camp on Saturday.

The bomb, made up of more than 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of TNT, was detonated by remote control.

There are any number of possible suspects in the killing; on Saturday. Watch out for attempts to make political capital out of the assassination by pinning it on various groups --- Israel, Syria, Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah all jump to mind --- irrespective of evidence (or a lack of it).

The official in charge of security at the camp speculated that "a third party...got involved to create inter-Palestinian sedition and chaos," but a Fatah official in Lebanon, Edward Kattoura, said, "According to the style of the operation it seems that Israel is behind this, because it is a very highly professional execution."

Hamas official Osama Hamdan struck a conciliatory note, saying Naji had played a role in easing tensions among the Palestinian factions in the country, and cautioned, "It is not possible to speculate on who committed this crime."