The two charred corpses found in the southern city of Sidon following the deadly clashes are not those of the radical Salafist cleric Ahmad al-Assir and Fadel Shaker.

The two charred corpses found in the southern city of Sidon following the deadly clashes are not those of the radical Salafist cleric Ahmad al-Assir and Fadel Shaker, the state commissioner to the military court revealed on Wednesday based on DNA tests.

Judge Saqr Saqr confirmed that DNA tests of Assir's mother and Shaker's brother revealed that the bodies were neither of Assir, nor of Shaker.

The corpses are still unidentified and no one recognized them.

Saqr who is overseeing the initial investigation into the fighting between Assir’s partisans and the army in Abra near Sidon, ordered on Monday the release of nine people who had been arrested at the end of the battles.

Thirty suspects remain in custody, the National News Agency reported Monday.

The fighting, which was sparked late last month when Asir's supporters opened fire on an army checkpoint, left around 18 soldiers killed.

Assir, 45, and Shaker, a onetime prominent singer-turned Salafist, reportedly fled the scene of the clashes and remain at large.