BEIRUT/SIDON: Preliminary confessions by Lebanon’s most wanted fugitive, radical preacher Ahmad al-Assir, have begun to provide security agencies with a trove of important information that will help in cracking down on terror cells in the country, political sources said. General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim was quoted by local TV stations as saying that initial confessions by Assir, who is facing the death penalty for his role in deadly clashes that killed 18 soldiers east of the southern city of Sidon in 2013, have revealed the names of a number of people suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks.

Based on information provided by Assir, General Security units have raided a number of shops and houses in Sidon since Saturday night, arresting a man and confiscating an unidentified object.

Investigation with Assir is focusing on the logistical group that arranged his travel from the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh near Sidon to Beirut airport and provided him with a fake passport.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam praised Assir’s arrest, telling visitors that security agencies are cracking down on terrorism.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri also hailed Assir’s arrest after he was briefed by telephone by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk and Ibrahim on the arrest.

Hariri, according to a statement released by his media office, “commended the alertness shown by General Security members at the airport and their ability to thwart the escape bid and arrest the wanted people.”

The former premier also stressed the “importance of efforts made by legitimate security and military agencies to protect national stability and hunt down outlaws.” Hariri urged all Lebanese leaders “to refrain from protecting criminals and armed gangs, whoever they are and with whomever they are affiliated.”

Assir was arrested by General Security agents at Beirut airport Saturday morning after more than two years on the run.

Assir was apprehended at 10:30 a.m. while attempting to leave Lebanon for Nigeria via Cairo, according to a statement released by General Security. The preacher used a fake Palestinian passport and a valid Nigerian visa, the statement said. It added that Assir was taken to the Directorate of General Security where investigation with him has begun under the supervision of the relevant judiciary.

A security source told The Daily Star that Assir had “changed his appearance” and was trying to flee with another man. An unverified photo circulated in the media purports to show Assir without his long, signature beard, and appears to show that he had a nose job.

Assir was holding a fake passport in the name of Rami Abdul-Rahman Taleb, while his companion was holding a passport in the name of Khaled Sidani.

The driver who transported Assir to the airport was apprehended later in the day. He was driving a white Mercedes-Benz, carrying the license plate number 254635/T.

Assir, a radical anti-Hezbollah preacher, is wanted for sparking a two-day battle against the Lebanese Army in June 2013 in Abra, east of Sidon. The clashes, which erupted after Assir’s loyalists opened fire on an Army checkpoint in the city, resulted in the deaths of 18 Army soldiers and at least 40 militants.

Since his escape from a mosque in Abra following the clashes, Assir was widely believed to have been hiding in the Ain al-Hilweh camp.

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.

Earlier a security source described Assir’s arrest as a singular achievement for Ibrahim, who got assistance from the Palestinian leadership, namely the Fatah group, in the Ain al-Hilweh camp.

There was no foreign or Western role in Assir’s arrest except the Palestinian leadership, namely the Fatah Movement, the source told The Daily Star. The source added that Assir’s movement was closely watched by a very small unit of General Security.

However, Ibrahim insisted that the successful operation that resulted in Assir’s arrest was “purely Lebanese,” with no international or Palestinian intelligence agencies playing a role.

“We are never embarrassed to say we cooperate with regional agencies in our operations, and this is what occurred when we arrested [extremist militant Shadi] Mawlawi,” Ibrahim was quoted as saying by MTV. “But this time, [the operation] was purely Lebanese and fully carried out by the General Security ... from A to Z.” He dismissed as “false” media reports that claimed Palestinian factions or foreign intelligence agencies helped Lebanese authorities identify Assir.

According to Ibrahim, the operation was the result of close monitoring of Assir by the General Security. “This time Assir came to us,” MTV quoted Ibrahim as saying.

Ibrahim denied that General Security was able to identify Assir through a retina scanning machine. “We have no such technology,” he told MTV.

He also denied media reports claiming that Assir was apprehended after he had already boarded the plane, in which he was heading to Cairo on his way to Nigeria.

Ibrahim said Assir was instead stopped at the General Security post in the airport because his passport was fake.

The top fugitive cooperated with the officer and did not deny his true identity, Ibrahim said.

In an audio tape released by Assir’s supporters and broadcast by Al-Jadeed TV Sunday night, the firebrand preacher called on the mujahedeen in Iraq and Syria to come to his rescue.

“I appeal to you by God to come to our rescue in Lebanon and to rescue the Sunnis in Lebanon,” Assir said in what the TV called “Assir’s will” in the event of his death or his arrest.

State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud announced that Assir would face a public trial soon. “There is an indictment against him [Assir] that has already been issued by the military investigative judge, which means his legal file is complete and it won’t be long before he is summoned to court,” Hammoud told the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat. The trial will be publicly held at the Military Court, he added.

Hammoud said that despite the strong charges against the firebrand preacher, the case would still require further investigations, adding that he requested immediate DNA tests to verify Assir’s identity.

The families of soldiers killed during the 2013 Abra clashes welcomed Assir’s arrest. The families in a statement congratulated security forces on arresting Assir, whom they described as “the head of sedition and one of the reasons behind a battle that claimed the lives of the finest of our youth.”

The latest raid targeted an automobile repair shop in the Industrial City in Sidon, from which security forces confiscated a large box with unknown contents, a security source said.

Sidon residents told The Daily Star that the man who owns the shop, Abdul-Rahman al-Shami, closed the property and fled the area after Assir’s arrest.

Nearby shop owners, who confirmed the raid story, could not specify whether the box contained weapons, explosives or some other objects.

General Security also raided a second house belonging to Shami, who gave Assir shelter for over a month, in Iqlim al-Kharroub, but he was not there.

A General Security unit also raided an apartment building in Abra, arresting another suspected Assir accomplice identified as Ahmad Abdel-Majid, a Palestinian.