BEIRUT: Al Qaeda’s Syria affiliate called on the Lebanese authorities yesterday to discuss its terms for the release of dozens of captive troops, after three of them were executed.
Al Nusra Front killed one of the around 30 soldiers and police Syrian rebels captured in fighting in a Lebanese town near the Syrian border last month. Rival jihadists of the Islamic State group beheaded the other two.
In a video posted on YouTube, Al Nusra accused Lebanese authorities of allowing its Shia Muslim foe Hezbollah, which has been heavily involved in the civil war in neighbouring Syria, to block negotiations for the soldiers’ release. Hezbollah “is causing all attempts to negotiate the release of the Lebanese hostages to fail,” the video charges. Al Nusra has previously demanded that in return for the release of the captive soldiers, Hezbollah end its intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. AFP
