SIDON, Lebanon: Security forces apprehended a suspected follower of fugitive Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir in Sidon Friday, a day after they had circulated rumors that a suicide bomber was planning to blow himself up in the southern coastal city, security sources told the Daily Star.
The source said the suspect, identified by his initials M.K., is the brother of two detainees held in connection with clashes that pitted Assir’s gunmen against the Army in June 2013.
Police were interrogating him after finding recent photos of Nusra Front and ISIS militants on his mobile phone, the sources said.
The arrest came a day after Sidon was gripped by rumors of an imminent suicide bombing attack, triggering tensions and fears that caused the closure of the Lebanese University branches in the city.
The sources said the rumors were deliberately spread by police intelligence in order to alert the parents of extremist youth who had allegedly disappeared in recent weeks and encourage them to report their disappearances.
The families of at least two followers of Assir reported the disappearances of their sons a week ago, but intelligence believe that more than five Islamists went underground and could be recruited to carry out suicide bombings, the sources said.
A partisan of Assir was among one of two attackers who carried out the twin suicide bombing against the Iranian embassy in Beirut more than a year ago, killing at least 27 people and injuring over 100 others.
The anti-Hezbollah preacher, whose gunmen provoked a deadly, two-day battle with the Lebanese Army in June 2013 after attacking one of its checkpoints, is still on the run, while many of his followers were arrested after the clashes.
The attacks resulted in the death of 18 Army soldiers and around 40 of Assir’s followers. The Army arrested dozens of suspects.
Assir is being tried in absentia on charges of murdering and attempting to murder soldiers and civilians, of committing terrorist operations, possessing weapons and explosives, instigating sectarian tension and calling for sectarian fighting.
Assir was the preacher at the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Abra, near the site of the clashes. He claimed that the Lebanese government was controlled by Hezbollah and that state institutions, especially its security forces, were biased against Sunnis
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