Sheikh Al-Assir's Militants Kill Lebanese Soldiers in Sidon

Jean Aziz (Lebanon Pulse)

Jun 24, 2013

Lebanese army soldiers point their weapons during clashes with gunmen of hardline Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, in Abra near Sidon, southern Lebanon, June 24, 2013. Lebanese soldiers fought Sunni Muslim gunmen in the southern city of Sidon on Monday in one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence fuelled by sectarian divisions over the civil war in neighbouring Syria. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST MILITARY) - RTX10YUO — Lebanese soldiers point their weapons during clashes with gunmen of hard-line Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, in Abra near Sidon, southern Lebanon, June 24, 2013. — REUTERS/Sharif Karim

عربي

Two Lebanese army officers and 14 soldiers were killed on Sunday [June 23] near Sidon, southern Lebanon's largest city, The Associated Press reported.

A number of fundamentalist Sunni militants affiliated with Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir attacked a Lebanese army checkpoint in the area of Abra, a stronghold of Assir where the mosque from which he leads his Sunni Salafist movement is located.