Ahmad al assir biography of george

Beirut, Lebanon – As the army picks through the debris in the aftermath of Sidon’s fiercest battle since the end of this country’s civil war, information is slowly trickling out over who Ahmed al-Assir, the controversial Sunni cleric who led the two-day battle against the Lebanese army, really is.

The clashes began with the killing of three soldiers in an attack by armed supporters of Assir on an army checkpoint in the southern city’s Abra neighbourhood.

Two days of intense fighting followed, resulting in the deaths of 16 Lebanese soldiers and more than 30 Assir-allied fighters. This was the culmination of tension which has been escalating over the past 18 months, with Assir always at the centre of the storm.

Assir has hogged the media spotlight, drawing attention to what many labeled a new phenomenon within the Lebanese Sunni community.

With controversial sectarian rhetoric, he was both revered and despised, but in a country where sectarian ten Ahmad Asiri (general) - Wikipedia WIQYX