Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir was plotting to target several areas across Lebanon in an attempt to provoke strife under the auspices of a “prominent” security agency and funded by well-known businessmen, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.A security source told As Safir newspaper that reputable businessmen granted al-Asir financial funds and apartments, who in turn used the funding to buy arms and explosives, aiming to bomb several areas across the country to create a sectarian strife.The [[[[source also told the newspaper that a truck loaded with arms crossed al-Awali army checkpoint two days before the clashes with the army in the southern town of Abra, near the port city of Sidon]]]]].According to the source,[[[[[[[ the truck made its way to Abra through a “prominent” security agency.The truck was located near al-Asir's complex in the southern town with the arms.]]]]]]The fighting, which was sparked last Sunday when al-Asir's supporters opened fire on an army checkpoint, left around 18 soldiers and more than 20 gunmen dead.The gunbattles concentrated in the area of Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque and nearby buildings.Al-Asir, a 45-year-old cleric who supports the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, is no where to be found along with singer-turned Salafist Fadel Shaker.On Monday, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr asked for the DNA samples of al-Asir's mother and the brother of Shaker.Al-Asir teamed up with him when around two years ago he began agitating for Hizbullah to disarm.The results of the tests will be compared with the DNAs of two burned bodies found by the army after taking control of the complex of al-Asir.
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Army: Detainee in Shaker's Video Confessed to Smuggling Arms into Lebanon
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/89056-army-detainee-in-shaker-s-video-confessed-to-smuggling-arms-into-lebanon
The Army Command announced on Tuesday that the man
arrested for appearing in a video alongside former singer Fadel Shaker
had confessed to smuggling weapons into Lebanon.It said in a statement that Ghali Haddara confessed to
smuggling arms and ammunition into the so-called security zone in Abra
in the southern city of Sidon.He revealed that some of the weapons were smuggled into
Abra two days before the eruption of the two-day clashes with the army
on June 22, it added.Haddara who was arrested in a tourist resort on June 28
was found possessing equipment to make explosives, announced the Army
Command.Eighteen soldiers were killed and 50 were wounded in
clashes in Sidon between the army and armed supporters of Salafist
cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir on June 22 and 23.More than 20 of al-Asir's supporters were killed, according to a security official.Dozens of them were also arrested, but there was no sign of the cleric.On Monday, unrest erupted in the northern city of Tripoli in light of Haddara's arrestHe was arrested for interrogation after he appeared
alongside singer-turned-Islamist militant Fadel Shaker in a video
circulated in the wake of the Abra battle.Shaker is now on the run with fellow fugitive al-Asir.
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