Lebanese authorities detained a hardline Sunni Islamist cleric wanted for attacks on the Lebanese army as he tried to flee the country yesterday, security officials said.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, a Lebanese citizen, was arrested at Beirut airport as he tried to depart using a forged passport, the officials said.

The National News Agency said he wanted to travel to Egypt.

Assir rose to prominence with the onset of the civil war in neighbouring Syria that has triggered instability in Lebanon by exacerbating sectarian tensions between its Sunni and Shi’ite communities.

Charges include forming a terrorist organisation

Charges against him include forming a terrorist organisation and inciting violence against the army. In 2013, 12 Lebanese soldiers were killed when they stormed a mosque complex belonging to Assir in the southern city of Sidon. Assir’s supporters accused the army of siding with the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hizbollah, which is fighting in Syria alongside President Bashar al-Assad against predominantly Sunni Muslim insurgents.

As the war in Syria escalated, Assir won support among some Sunnis in Lebanon by speaking out against Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and organising protests against Assad.

Assir, in hiding, was sentenced to death in absentia by Lebanon last year. The National News Agency published a photo showing a clean-shaven Assir apparently taken after his detention.