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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
Based in Baalbek in the Biqa Valley, Islamic Amal was led by
Husayn al Musawi, who was also a leading figure in Hizballah. The
movement got its start in June 1982 when Nabih Birri, the head of
Amal, agreed to participate in the Salvation Committee, a body set
up by President Ilyas Sarkis following the Israeli invasion. The
committee included Bashir Jumayyil, the much-despised Maronite
commander of the LF. Musawi considered Birri's actions "treasonous"
and Amal's orientation too secular. In response, Musawi broke from
Amal and set up his own faction, which observers believed was
organized primarily along family lines.
Islamic Amal was backed by officials in the Iranian government,
and it coordinated with units of Iran's (Pasdaran) Revolutionary
Guards stationed around Baalbek. Even so, in 1986 when Iranian
officials pressured Musawi to dissolve his organization, he
refused. He agreed, however, to remain part of Hizballah, and he
reportedly served as a member of its Consultative Council. Press
reports linked Islamic Amal, like Hizballah, to anti-Western
violence in Lebanon
(see Internal Security and Terrorism
, ch. 5).
Although Musawi's rhetoric was vehemently anti-Western, as of late
1987 he had not claimed any violence in the name of Islamic Amal.
Data as of December 1987
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