Osama Saad: Military solution in Sidon inappropriate

                                     
The head of the Popular Nasserite Organization Osama Saad revealed on Thursday that armed men “still wander the streets of Sidon.”He also slammed the "light" procedures undertaken by the Lebanese Armed Forces in the city, asserting that perpetrators will be caught.               

Saad’s statements came during a press conference in which he held the Lebanese state responsible for the ongoing incidents in the city, calling on all Lebanese parties to protect Sidon.                

He also slammed “the military intimidation” launched by the Imam of Bilal bin Rabah mosque Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir.               

Heavy clashes erupted Tuesday [18 June] between unknown gunmen and followers of a radical Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir in south Lebanon, security officials said, killing one person in the latest apparent outbreak of violence between Lebanese factions supporting opposing sides in the civil war in neighboring Syria.                 

This as Lebanese Armed Forces intensified deployment in the region to control the escalating situation and prevent the disposition of armed men; however, a number of gunmen reportedly deployed at the roundabout across Bahaa Eddine Hariri Mosque, and on Sidon's Cornish.                        

The Media office of Sheikh Ahmad Assir told LBCI that clashes are ongoing between Assir's partisans and members from Hezbollah and the Resistance Serail but not with the military.                    

This as Ahmad Hariri, an official at Assir’s media office said that armed men broke into former singer Fadel Shaker’s residence in Sidon.             

In return Hezbollah's al-Manar station denied claims stating that Assir's gunmen had taken over the party's apartments in the region of Abra.                       

In this context, Sheikh Assir told LBCI that the deadline for the eviction of the Hezbollah apartments in the Abra region has been set for Monday.