It was Fadel Shaker who preoccupied the minds of the Lebanese throughout the month of March. His real name is Abdul Rahman Shamandar, born in Sidon and holder of both the Lebanese and Palestinian nationalities. Since 1998, Shaker has been tremendously famous in Lebanon as a singer with a distinguished warm voice performing romantic melodies.
He garnered great fame both on the Lebanese and Arab artistic scenes, until he announced his retirement in 2012 to join the faction of fugitive Lebanese Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir. Assir perpetrated attacks against the Lebanese army in the town of Abra, on Sidon’s outskirts, in 2013, leading to clashes that left the Lebanese army with 18 dead and 150 wounded soldiers, prior to Assir’s movement being completely eliminated.
The Abra battle ended with Assir and Shaker escaping and vanishing from sight, though it was later determined that they were hiding in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp. They and other participants in the fighting remain at the camp — despite facing the death penalty on charges of assaulting the Lebanese army, killing and attempting to kill dozens of soldiers and inciting sectarian strife — with other wanted and indicted fugitives. For the time being, Lebanese authorities cannot enter the camp and arrest these fugitives, as the Ain al-Hilweh camp is subject to the influence of the Palestinian forces present there. As for the Lebanese soldiers, they are deployed only at the camp entrances, amid the absence of an inclusive political decision to use military intervention and enter the camp, due to political and sectarian divisions characteristic of Lebanon.
Shaker has appeared more than once in YouTube videos opposing the army and boasting about killing Lebanese soldiers, and one video in particular where he referred to two dead soldiers killed like “meaningless bugs" stands out. He resurfaced suddenly in an interview with Lebanon’s LBCI TV channel on March 7, from his place of residence inside the camp, in his first such interview since his retirement as a singer and the Abra incidents.
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