Today Ansar Jerusalem released a 24-minute-long video, titled “The Path of the Merciful One and the Path of Satan,” to jihadist forums. The video was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
In the video, the group eulogizes Ibrahim Oweidah Nasser Bereikat, who participated in an attack on an Israeli bus near the border with Egypt in Eilat that killed eight Israelis on Aug. 18, 2011. According to the video, Bereikat was part of the “backup team in the operation.” In addition to the eulogy, the video shows the interrogation and confession of Meneizel Muhammad Suleiman Salamah, one of the “spies” allegedly involved in Bereikat’s assassination on Aug. 26.
On Aug. 31, Ansar Jerusalem released a statement that eulogized Bereikat and claimed he was killed by Israel’s Mossad with the aid of Egyptian “spies,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group translation. The terror group also claimed it captured and beheaded Meneizel Muhammad Suleiman Salamah, and said that it was seeking to kill two other “spies,” identified as Salamah Muhammad Salamah al Oweidah and Suleiman Salamah Hamdan.
In the video, the eulogy for Bereikat is given by two men, a narrator and a member of Ansar Jerusalem identified as Abu Abdul Rahman. The narrator states that Bereikat was 35 years old and married with six children. Rahman later adds that Bereikat “reject[ed] having photos taken of him for any reason, even the photos that were taken of him unintentionally.”
According to Rahman, Bereikat was an “honorable brother” who “taught those around him how jihad in the Cause of Allah should be and what are its costs.” Rahman also says Bereikat was very careful in his reconnaissance missions prior to the attack on Aug 18. As a result of his jihadist activities, Bereikat “became a target for the Jewish Mossad.”
After the eulogy, the narrator describes Bereikat’s assassination. “The Mossad used a network of three spies [Meneizel Muhammad Suleiman Salamah, Salamah Muhammad Salamah al Oweidah and Suleiman Salamah Hamdan] to collect information and help in carrying out the assassination operation,” the narrator says. The narrator also states that four members of the Mossad were involved in the plot.
During his confession, Meneizel Muhammad Suleiman Salamah, one of the “spies,” says that he had been working with the Mossad for over a year, and that he and Suleiman Salamah al-Hamdan met an officer named Abu Salim in Israel approximately 12 times. According to Salamah, one of his primary tasks was to monitor the activities of Ibrahim Oweidah Nasser Bereikat.
After explaining how he worked with the Mossad to assassinate Bereikat, Salamah calls on “the spies to stop this job of being spies for Israel, because this will destroy you.” He continues: “We should leave this work and say to the religious brothers to forgive us, and they will forgive us. If we remain working with the Jews then our fate will be slaughter.” Salamah then warns Abu Salim that the Mujahideen “will get you in your home.”
Near the end of the video, the narrator claims that one of the “spies,” Salamah Muhammad Salamah al-Oweidah, has fled to Israel. The other, Suleiman Salamah Hamdan, the narrator says, was disowned by his family, who “handed him over to the relatives of the martyr to retaliate against him.”
The video concludes with a vow from the narrator that Ansar Jerusalem will soon be “shedding the blood of the Jews and making their body parts fly all over.”
Ansar Jerusalem
Ansar Jerusalem is thought to be behind most of the recent attacks originating from the Sinai, according to Israeli intelligence. The group, which is said to recruit within Egypt and abroad, has claimed credit for a number of attacks against Israel over the past year, including the attack on Sept. 21. The deadliest attack was the Aug. 18, 2011 assault on a bus traveling near the border with Egypt in Eilat, which resulted in the deaths of eight Israelis and at least seven terrorists. Three Egyptian security personnel were also accidentally killed in the crossfire.
In addition, Ansar Jerusalem has taken credit for a number of attacks against the Arish-Ashkelon natural gas pipeline as well as at least one rocket attack on Eilat.
On Oct. 15, the group threatened to attack Israel for the assassinations of Abu al Walid al Maqdisi, the former emir of the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem, and Ashraf al Sabah, the former emir of Ansar al Sunnah.
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