Asir Supporter Arrested Trying to Cross Checkpoint Disguised as Woman
Ahmed Qiblawi, one of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir's fugitive supporters, was arrested Wednesday as he tried to cross Sidon's al-Awali checkpoint while disguised as a niqab-wearing woman.
“An Internal Security Forces patrol chased Ahmed Qiblawi, one of Ahmed al-Asir's loyalists, while he was disguised as a woman and managed to capture him at al-Awali checkpoint at the northern entrance of the city of Sidon,” state-run National News Agency said.
“Army intelligence agents then took him to the Mohammed Zgheib Barracks in Sidon,” NNA added.
According to several media reports, Qiblawi was sporting an Islamic full-face veil, or niqab.
The whereabouts of Asir, his close aide Fadel Shaker and many of their group remain unknown after the army stormed the Islamist cleric's headquarters on June 24.
Eighteen soldiers were killed and 20 others were wounded in fierce clashes sparked by an attack by Asir loyalists on an army checkpoint in the Sidon suburb of Abra. Twenty of Asir's gunmen were also killed in the fighting.
The fighting was among the worst in Lebanon since the outbreak of the conflict in neighboring Syria in 2011.
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