Al-Sa'iqa

(Arabic) Literally means "The Storm." It is a "Palestinian" armed group created by Syrian Ba'ath party in 1966. It is a commando group formed by (and mostly consisting of) Syrian Ba‘thists officially in Sept 1966. It became operational only in Dec 1968 to rival Fatah and to support Salah Jadid in his power struggle with Hafez Assad for Syrian leadership. The original leadership consisted of Yusuf Zu’ayyin, Mahmud al-Ma‘ayta (from November 1970); but these were replaced with Assad loyalists after the Nov 70 coup. The pro-Jadid branch remained active in Jordan until Jun 71, when its were leaders arrested and Zuhayr Muhsin was appointed Secretary General. It was an early supporter of the 'national authority' proposal in 1974, and was a co-sponsor of the 1974 Palestine National Council Resolution.

It is strictly Pan-Arabist, denying a Palestinian identity except as a tactical maneuver. Zuhayr Muhsin was assassinated in Cannes, Jul 79. More recently is has been led by ‘Isam al-Qadi (Secretary General from 1979), with Muhammed Khalifah as deputy (who sits on the PLO-EC), Sami al-‘Atari and Majid Muhsin (head of operations in Lebanon; Zuhayr's brother). It is consistently pro-Syria and fought alongside Syrian forces in Lebanon in 1976 against all other PLO forces.

Al-Saiqa was disqualified from the PLO until Syria pressured for its rehabilitation in Dec 76, with a large number of defections from Sa‘iqa at this point. Thereafter, it lobbied within PLO mostly against Fatah's links with conservative regimes, especially with Egypt. It was against the Madrid conference and Oslo accords, and is leading member of the “Damascus 10”. Nevertheless it participates in NIF (National Islamic Forces) from 2000.

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Further Information:

Encyclopedia of the Middle East

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Spelling - Spelling of words in Middle-Eastern languages is often arbitrary. There may be many variants of the same name or word such as Hezbollah, Hizbolla, Hisbolla or Husayn and Hussein. There are some conventions for converting words from Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.  There are numerous variant renderings of the same Arabic or Hebrew words, such as "Hizbollah," "Hisbulla" etc. It is not possible to find exact equivalents for several letters. 

Pronunciation - Arabic and Hebrew vowels are pronounced differently than in English. "o" is very short. The "a" is usually pronounced like the "a" in market, sometimes as the "a" in "Arafat."  The " 'A " is guttural.  " 'H "- the 'het ('Hirbeh, 'Hebron, 'Hisbollah') designates a sound somewhat similar to the ch in "loch" in Scots pronunciation, but made by touching the back of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. The CH should be pronounced like Loch, a more assertive consonant than 'het.

The "Gh" combination, and sometimes the "G," designate a deep guttural sound that Westerners may hear approximately as "r." The "r" sound is always formed with the back of the tongue, and is not like the English "r."

More information: Hebrew, Arabic