Reports: Army Briefly Arrests Asir's Cousin in Abra
The army intelligence arrested on Wednesday the cousin of fugitive Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in Abra, a suburb of the southern city of Sidon, reports said.
Abdul Rahim al-Asir was apprehended at the pharmacy where he worked and was released hours later, they said.
Al-Asir went into hiding following deadly gunbattles with the Lebanese army in June 2013. Indictments were issued in February against him and 56 of his followers that called for the death penalty.
The 45-year-old cleric, who supports the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, is still nowhere to be found along with pop idol Fadel Shaker.
Al-Asir teamed up with Shaker, a onetime prominent singer, when around three years ago he began agitating for Hizbullah to disarm.
Al-Asir's supporters opened fire on an army checkpoint near the cleric's headquarters in Abra in June last year. The attack and the fierce clashes that ensued left around 18 soldiers and more than 20 gunmen dead.
The gunbattles concentrated in the area of the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, where Asir was a preacher, and nearby buildings in Abra.
G.K.
M.T.
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