Hamas can now tell gullible Western officials that it is fighting against “extremism”!
Out-Heroding Herod Update: “Leader of Al-Qaida Inspired Group in Gaza Killed,” by VOA News, August 15:
The leader of an al-Qaida-inspired Palestinian group in Gaza is dead following a gunbattle that killed 22 people and wounded more than 120.
Hamas officials said Saturday hardline cleric Abdel-Latif Moussa – the leader of Jund Ansar Allah (“Soldiers of the Followers of God”) was killed in an explosion Saturday morning. It was not immediately clear if the blast was set off by Hamas forces or militants holed up inside Moussa’s home.
On Friday, Moussa declared Gaza an Islamic emirate and called for the implementation of strict Sharia (Islamic) law in a challenge to Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Hamas security forces then engaged in an hours-long battle at a mosque in the southern town of Rafah to put down the uprising….
Jund Ansar Allah is one of a handful of small, extremist groups that have criticized Hamas for its cease-fire with Israel, and demanded the imposition of a strict form of Islam in Gaza.
Although Hamas is an Islamist movement, observers say its focus on Palestinian nationalism sets it apart from al-Qaida’s goals of broad religious war….