ISI Emir, Ahmed Al Assir
ISIS Emir, Ahmed Al Assir
ISIS Emir, Ahmed Al Assi
BEIRUT // After more than two years
on the run, Islamic State top cleric in Lebanon, Ahmed Al Assir was arrested by
Lebanese authorities on Saturday as he attempted to fly out of the country on a
forged passport.
Lebanon’s official National News
Agency reported that Mr. Al Assir was caught at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri
International Airport on Saturday while trying to board a flight to Egypt using
a fake Palestinian passport.
Lebanon’s general security
directorate said Mr Al Assir was planning on flying to Nigeria via Cairo.
A photo posted by the National News
Agency after the arrest revealed that Mr. Al Assir had recently adopted a new
look, shaving his long, unkempt beard and trading his usual religious robes and
headwear for a more inconspicuous jacket and sweater. Some local news outlets
suggested Mr Assir had also had plastic surgery to alter his appearance.
Mr Al Assir became one of the most
wanted men in Lebanon after his militia went to battle with the Lebanese army
in the port city of Sidon in 2013, resulting in the deaths of 18 soldiers and
dozens of Mr Al Assir’s gunmen.
When the war in Syria began
emboldening extremist Sunnis in Lebanon and inflaming sectarian tensions here,
Mr Al Assir swiftly rose from obscurity to become a powerful voice. From his
modest Bilal Bin Rabah mosque in the southern city of Sidon, he railed against
Hizbollah and later the Lebanese state, accusing them of subjugating Lebanon’s
Sunni community.
Mr Al Assir was ridiculed by his
opponents for his hardline rhetoric and media stunts, such as a 2013 incident
in which his followers forced their convoys through Christian-erected
roadblocks to reach a ski resort and play in the snow.
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