Dinnieh clashes
{{Short description|1999–2000 Lebanese week-long clash with an Islamist group}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict=Dinnieh fighting
|partof=
|image=
|caption=
|date= 30 December 1999 – 6 January 2000 ({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|year1=1999|month1=12|day1=30|year2=2000|month2=01|day2=06}})
|place=Dinnieh district
|casus=
|territory=
|status=Lebanese Army victory
|combatant1={{flagicon|Lebanon}} Lebanese Army
{{flagicon|Lebanon}} Internal Security Forces
|combatant2=22px Takfir wa al-Hijra
Abou Aisha
|commander1=Francois al-Hajj
|commander2= Bassam Kanj
|strength1=13,000
|strength2=200–300
|casualties2=25 killed
55 captured
}}{{Campaignbox Lebanon}}
The Dinnieh fighting ({{langx|ar| اشتباكات الضنية}})
(30 December 1999 – 6 January 2000) involved the Sunni Islamist group Takfir wa al-Hijra and the Lebanese Army fighting for eight days in the mountainous Dinnieh region, east of the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.
Over a period of several days, an estimated 13,000 Lebanese army troops backed by tanks and artillery swiftly defeated the group of 200–300 rebels, driving isolated bands of surviving guerrillas into remote areas of north Lebanon. The Lebanese army reported a total of 12 soldiers killed in action, while 25 rebels were killed and 55 captured.[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-73739656.html LEBANON - The Limited Scope For Sunni Militancy. - APS Diplomat Redrawing the Islamic Map | Encyclopedia.com][http://www.meib.org/articles/0001_l1.htm "Syrian, Lebanese Security Forces Crush Sunni Islamist Opposition" (January 2000)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104004705/http://www.meib.org/articles/0001_l1.htm |date=2009-01-04 }}[http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/464/re3.htm Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Islamists on a rampage in Lebanon] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216130953/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/464/re3.htm |date=2008-12-16 }}
Group
The Dinniyeh Group was a group of 200–300 Islamist militants led by Bassam Ahmad Kanj. Kanj was a close associate of Raed Hijazi who had recently been indicted for his involvement in the millennium bombing plots in Jordan.{{Cite book|first=R.|last=Rabil|title=Religion, National Identity, and Confessional Politics in Lebanon: The Challenge of Islamism|year=2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3fHMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA192|publisher=Springer|page=192|isbn=9780230339255}}
Attack
Starting at the close of December 1999, The Dinniyeh Group launched an attempt to create a Sunni Islamist mini-state in northern Lebanon.[http://www.meib.org/articles/0306_l1.htm Ain al-Hilweh: Lebanon's "Zone of Unlaw" (June 2003)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813140217/http://www.meib.org/articles/0306_l1.htm |date=2006-08-13 }} The militants seized control of dozens of villages in the mountainous Dinniyeh district, east of Tripoli before being defeated by a force of 13,000 Lebanese soldiers in several days of intense combat.
Aftermath
After the fighting members of The Dinniyeh Group who were not killed or captured fled to Ain al-Hilweh. According to court documents from judicial proceedings against captured members, the group had received financial support from associates of Osama bin Laden through bank accounts in Beirut and north Lebanon. In 2005, members of the group were released by a parliamentary resolution after the 2005 elections which also pardoned the most powerful anti-Syrian Christian leader Samir Geagea who was imprisoned 11 years earlier after being accused of involvement in the Saydet al-Najat Church Explosion (Lebanon, 1994)
References
{{Reflist}}
Category:Lebanese Army Operations
Category:Operations involving Lebanese special forces
Category:Wars involving Lebanon
Category:2000 millennium attack plots
Category:Islamic terrorism in Lebanon
Category:Islamic terrorist incidents in 1999
Category:Islamic terrorist incidents in 2000
Category:Terrorist incidents in Lebanon in 1999
Category:Terrorist incidents in Lebanon in 2000
Category:January 2000 in Lebanon
Category:December 1999 in Lebanon
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