Mopping up ops in Lebanon in search of Assir supporters

Lebanese security forces have conducted several operations in search of elements affiliated with Takfiri preacher Ahmad al-Assir.

On Sunday, the Lebanese officials launched mop-up operations to arrest the supporters of the extremist figure a day after he was caught by the country’s security forces.

Earlier in the day, the intelligence officers swarmed a garage in the Sineeq industrial zone and detained one of Assir’s supporters, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Lebanese Forces Political Party Samir Geagea hailed the arrest of the Takfiri hardliner as “a grand security achievement” for the Arab country.

Ibrahim Kanaan, a leading spokesman of the Free Patriotic Movement and prominent member of the Lebanese parliament, also praised the power of the Lebanese intelligence and security services, saying all political parties should do their utmost to maintain national stability in the country.

"The detention of Ahmad al-Assir is a national achievement outside confessional considerations because that whom he attacked … was the Lebanese Army, the Army of all Lebanon," Kanaan (seen above) noted.

Assir was detained at an airport on Saturday while he was trying to leave the country for Egypt in disguise.

A staunch supporter of the Daesh terrorist group, Assir was on a wanted list since June 2013 after clashes between his Takfiri followers and the Lebanese army claimed the lives of 18 soldiers in the southern city of Sidon.

In 2014, a Lebanese military judge urged the country’s prosecutors to hand down death penalty to 54 Takfiris, including Assir and notorious extremist singer Fadel Shaker.

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