Bahia Hariri: Sidon Clashes Stir Premeditated Sedition

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Bahia Hariri stated on Sunday the clashes in the southern city of Sidon between the gunmen of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and the army “aimed at stirring a premeditated sedition.”

“Today we are counting on the army more than ever and these clashes are aimed at stirring a premeditated sedition,” Hariri said in a phone call with Future television.

The Sidon MP assured that she rejects “all forms of stockpiling arms in the city.”

“We warn against being dragged into the game of weapons,” she pointed out.

“After we were besieged in our houses, I'm confident that what happened is aimed at destroying the city and we all heard the threats.”

Hariri stressed, however, that Sidon “will not be abandoned,” urging the city’s residents to “take a stand against the possession of arms.”

“The state and the army are the only guarantee to the city and to Lebanon.”

Ten army troops were martyred and 35 others were wounded Sunday in a clash with supporters of al-Asir in the Sidon suburb of Abra, the Army Command said in a statement.

The fighting erupted when Asir supporters surrounded an army checkpoint in Abra, where a vehicle transporting other supporters of the cleric had been stopped, a security source told Agence France Presse.

LBCI television said the clash in Sidon allegedly erupted over the army's arrest of two individuals linked to the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque.