Fatah al-Islam 19 August 2010, hundreds of mourners in Ain al-Hilweh laid to rest Awad. The open-casket funeral of Awad, dubbed the "prince" of Fatah al-Islam and formerly one of Lebanon's most wanted Islamists, was attended by his family, representatives of Islamist factions and members of the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Awad, who had been hiding in Ain al-Hilweh for more than a year, opened fire at troops along with his comrade, Abu Bakr Abdullah, and the soldiers responded, killing the pair, the army said. Abu Bakr was rumoured to have provided military training to members of Fatah al-Islam.
Fatah itself with the communist and Nasserist Lebanese National Movement (LNM). Although originally aligned with Fatah, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad feared a loss of influence in Lebanon and switched sides. He sent his army, along with the Syrian-backed Palestinian factions of as-Sa'iqa and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) led by Ahmad Jibril to fight alongside the Christian forces against the PLO and the LNM. The primary component of the Christian militias was the Maronite Phalangists. Phalangist forces killed twenty-six Fatah trainees on a bus in April 1975, marking the official start of the 15-year-long