Report: Fadel Shaker's Bodyguard Wounded in Bomb Attack

The bodyguard of Fadel Shaker, who has allegedly taken refuge in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, has been injured in a bomb attack, al-Manar TV reported.

Hizbullah's TV station said late Thursday that Mahmoud Ward was wounded when a bomb went off in Ain el-Hilweh's Tahtani street.

The state-run National News Agency did not say whether Ward was Shaker's bodyguard. It only reported that the man, known as Abou Aisha, sustained injuries when a percussion grenade exploded.

The bomb went off near the bureau of Fatah member Abou Rabih al-Saadi, the agency added.

Shaker, a singer-turned Salafist, was born to a Palestinian mother and Lebanese father in Ain al-Hilweh.

He became the best-known face of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir's small movement of openly sectarian Sunni radicals.

He disappeared in June 2013 during deadly clashes between the Lebanese army and al-Asir's supporters in Abra, a neighborhood of the southern city of Sidon.

Al-Asir is also believed to be hiding in Ain el-Hilweh that lies near Sidon.

G.K.

H.K.