Army: Detainee in Shaker's Video Confessed to Smuggling Arms into Lebanon
The Army Command announced on Tuesday that the man arrested for appearing in a video alongside former singer Fadel Shaker had confessed to smuggling weapons into Lebanon.
It said in a statement that Ghali Haddara confessed to smuggling arms and ammunition into the so-called security zone in Abra in the southern city of Sidon.
He revealed that some of the weapons were smuggled into Abra two days before the eruption of the two-day clashes with the army on June 22, it added.
Haddara who was arrested in a tourist resort on June 28 was found possessing equipment to make explosives, announced the Army Command.
Eighteen soldiers were killed and 50 were wounded in clashes in Sidon between the army and armed supporters of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir on June 22 and 23.
More than 20 of al-Asir's supporters were killed, according to a security official.
Dozens of them were also arrested, but there was no sign of the cleric.
On Monday, unrest erupted in the northern city of Tripoli in light of Haddara's arrest.
He was arrested for interrogation after he appeared alongside singer-turned-Islamist militant Fadel Shaker in a video circulated in the wake of the Abra battle.
Shaker is now on the run with fellow fugitive al-Asir.
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