Ali Eid's Brother Shot Dead in Kuweikhat, Residents Disavow Assailants

A brother of former MP Ali Eid was shot dead Monday in the Akkar town of al-Kuweikhat, in an attack that was swiftly condemned by the residents and the municipality.

“Bader Eid, a brother of ex-MP Ali Eid, was transferred to the Rahal Hospital in Akkar with a gunshot wound after he came under fire in the town of al-Kuweikhat,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Eid later died of his wounds at the aforementioned hospital, NNA said.

Security forces have since arrived on the scene of the incident and launched an investigation.

Meanwhile, al-Kuweikhat municipal chief Omar al-Hayek announced after a meeting at his residence that the town's dignitaries condemn the attack, noting that “the residents have nothing to do with” a social media statement giving Ali Eid's relatives a 10:00 pm ultimatum to leave Akkar.

The alleged statement was signed “The Gathering of al-Kuweikhat Youths.”

“All al-Kuweikhat residents dissociate themselves from this statement and they have nothing to do with the issue in any way whatsoever,” Hayek stressed.

He urged security agencies to unveil the circumstances of the attack and to “prosecute the distributors of such seditious statements that seek to undermine civil peace.”

Hayek also underlined “the keenness of al-Kuweikhat's residents in particular and Akkar's residents in general on good-neighborliness and coexistence with everyone.”

Later on Monday, NNA said the army closed the Mankoubeen-Qobbeh road in Tripoli as a precaution against any retaliatory acts in the wake of the incident.

Residents of the Tripoli district of Jabal Mohsen, which is largely loyal to Ali Eid's Arab Democratic Party, had last year come under several assaults in the city against the backdrop of deadly intermittent clashes with residents of the rival Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.

The army arrested many fugitives from both districts as an unprecedented security plan got underway in April 2014. However, Ali Eid and his son Rifaat managed to flee Lebanon after the judiciary charged them with a number of terror offenses.

Y.R.