Abdel Karim Obeid

Abdel Karim Obeid (الشيخعبدالكريمعبيد) is a sheik and "Imam" of the village of Jibchit in south Lebanon, high-place of Lebanese Shiism.

Regarded as the spiritual leader and soldier of the Islamic movement Amal in the south of Tyr, close to Hizballah and related to the operations of capturing western hostages since 1982. He was captured on 28 July 1989 by an Israeli commando. He was a long time held prisoner in Israel in the famous prison 1391, near the green line, and later transferred to the Ashmoret penitentiary, located near Kfar Yona, north of Tel Aviv.

In exchange of its release, Israel required information on the fate of the navigator Ron Arad (crashed in Southern Lebanon in October 1986) at first, and later on for the bodies of the three soldiers abducted by Hizballah in October 2000 at the Israeli-Lebanese border and for an Israeli business man captured at the same time elsewhere.

He was released in January 2004 with twenty other Lebanese prisoners, 400 Palestinian prisoners and a number of other nationals, as part of a deal to get the abducted soldiers and civilians back. He thanked Hizballah and Iranian leaders for acting for his release [ [http://www.mehrnews.com/ar/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=55943 Mehr News] (in Arabic, from an Iranian news agency) ]

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