Lebanon Arrests Fugitive Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir at Beirut Airport
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Lebanese authorities arrested Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport on Saturday after more than two years on the run, security sources told The Daily Star.
One source said Assir had "changed his look" and was trying to flee to Cairo with another man. An unverified photo circulated in the media purports to show Assir without his long, signature beard, and appears to have had a nose job, The Daily Star reported on Saturday.
The state-run National News Agency reported that Assir was holding a fake passport in the name of Rami Abdul Rahman Taleb, while his companion was holding a passport in the name of Khaled Sidani.
Assir, a radical anti-Hezbollah preacher, is wanted for leading a two-day battle against the Lebanese Army in June 2013 in Abra, a neighborhood in Sidon, south Lebanon.
The clashes, which erupted after Assir loyalists opened fire on an Army checkpoint in the city, resulted in the deaths of 18 Army soldiers and at least 40 militants.
A military judge last year sought the death penalty for Assir and 56 others over the Abra clashes.
Assir was widely believed to have been hiding in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp located in the southern city of Sidon.