Nigerian security forces are intensifying their probe into the issuance of visa to, and who was billed to host the ISIS leader, Ahmad al-Assir, who was arrested last Saturday in Lebanon while travelling to Nigeria. As security agencies dig deep into the aborted visit, five other suspects linked to him have been arrested in Lebanon.
Sources said there were global security concerns on the mission of al-Assir to Nigeria and who his allies billed to host him in the country were. There was, however, confusion over which security agency was duty-bound to pursue the matter. Sources in Defence Intelligence said that the matter was being handled by the State Security Service (SSS).
Reports from Lebanon said the military prosecutor, has referred al-Assir to that country’s Army Intelligence for further questioning on his role in deadly attacks just as General Security agents stepped up raids in the southern city of Sidon in search of suspects linked to the radical preacher, seizing two explosive belts in a deserted house.
After four days of questioning by General Security officers since his arrest last week, al-Assir and two other men detained in light of the ISIS chief’s confessions were handed over to Army Intelligence on orders of Military Prosecutor, Judge Saqr Saqr, a judicial source told Lebanon’s The Daily Star.
One of the suspects, Mohammad Nakouzi, was arrested on Monday over links to Assir.
Assir had been in General Security custody since he was arrested at Beirut airport last Saturday while attempting to flee to Nigeria via Cairo using a fake Palestinian passport, after more than two years on the run.
Assir’s confessions have so far led to the arrest of at least five people linked to the anti-Hezbollah firebrand preacher.
Judicial sources told The Daily Star newspaper that Assir will appear before Lebanon’s military court on Sept. 15 along with 71 suspects for their involvement in two days of deadly clashes against the Lebanese Army in Abra neighborhood, east of Sidon, in June 2013, that left 18 soldiers and about 40 militants dead.
In addition to his role in sparking the clashes with the Army in Abra, Assir is also suspected of helping radical militants who battled Lebanese troops in north Lebanon last October.
The 71 suspects, who include 24 fugitives, have been charged over the Abra clashes. They stand accused of murdering and attempting to murder soldiers and civilians, of committing terrorist operations, possessing weapons and explosives, instigating sectarian tension and calling for sectarian fighting.
If convicted, many of the detainees could face the death penalty.
A military judge last year demanded in an indictment the death penalty for Assir and 56 others, including former pop singer Fadl Shaker, over the Abra clashes.
Meanwhile, General Security officers, acting on information gleaned from Assir’s confessions during four days of interrogation, raided houses in Sidon in search of suspects linked to the preacher.
More than 30 members of General Security’s Information Branch, in eight four-wheel drive black vehicles, raided and searched three houses in Sidon for more than three hours.
In one of the raids on a deserted house in Zaroub Hashisho neighborhood in Sidon, a General Security unit seized two explosive belts along with a quantity of ammunition.
Sources familiar with the raid said the ammunition and other explosive materials were intended to be used by Assir’s followers in a terror attack.
The deserted house belongs to a man identified as Talal Kaddoura, and the raiding force asked residents living nearby about Assir’s followers who used to frequent the house and used it as a starting point for their moves concerning the preacher’s escape attempt, the sources said.
Among those residents was Ahmad Abdel-Majeed, a Palestinian who was spotted there and was arrested in Abra a few hours after Assir’s arrest.
The raids targeted the house of Khaled Awzaar, who was arrested Tuesday, and two other homes in Sidon where Assir was based.
One of the two other houses, located in the Old Sidon area, belongs to Fuad Abu Ghazala, a Palestinian Assir loyalist who is still at large.
In addition to Awzaar, agents have arrested persons identitified as Mohammad Nakouzi, Ahmad Abdul-Majid, Hossam Rifai and Moutassem Shami.
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