BEIRUT: Former Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn admitted Sunday that the escape of the Sunni extremist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir from last year’s clashes between his supporters and the Army in Sidon was due to an unspoken compromise, and said that Al-Qaeda has been in Lebanon for years.
“It didn’t occur in the same way as Arsal’s compromise,” Ghosn said in a TV interview with Al-Jadeed. “It was not part of a whole plan ... but Assir’s back was secured so that he could escape.”
The clashes between Assir's militia and Army troops in Sidon in June 2013 led to the deaths of 18 soldiers and around 40 of Assir’s combatants. The Army was able to arrest a further 40 suspects, who are still detained in Jezzine, south Lebanon, awaiting their trials.