Asir Accuses Hizbullah of Renting Apartments to Monitor His Movements
Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir on Wednesday accused Hizbullah of “renting apartments” in the vicinity of his mosque in Abra, east of Sidon, with the aim of “monitoring” his movements.
“Recently, the mosque's neighbors, and we're among them, noticed some rented apartments that are inhabited by young men who are not residents of the area, and the neighbors thought that they are students,” Asir said, adding that “a dispute happened recently and heavily armed young men came out of these rented apartments and threatened the neighbors.”
“It turned out that these men are present in the apartments in large numbers around the clock and that they are bringing weapons when night falls,” Asir added.
The Islamist cleric noted that “the neighbors have submitted a petition to the governor, demanding the departure of these strangers from the apartments because they are threatening the security of the area.”
“So far, we know of two apartments that are located around and near the mosque, of which the gunmen came out and threatened the neighbors with their weapons. The security agencies were informed of this incident, but some of them tried to cover up the issue,” Asir added.
“We have irrefutable evidence that the mission of these men is to monitor me, my movements and the movements of the mosque goers,” Asir went on to say, noting that “when we started to raise the issue, a lot of security agencies, including the army, deployed around these apartments to protect them.”
The anti-Hizbullah Salafist cleric urged officials and authorities to force the evacuation of the apartments to avert a possible “strife or any dangerous incident.”
“We have informed the governor of the issue and we're following up on it, and the premier (Najib Miqati) and the interior minister (Marwan Charbel) are aware of the issue and trying to follow up on it,” Asir added.
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