In a statement issued Friday night via Twitter, al-Nusra Front declared that it had executed Lebanese hostage Ali al-Bazzal, as a response to the arrests carried out by the Lebanese Armed Forces, threatening to murder another captive if the female detainees who were wrongly arrested were not released.
Upon the issuance of the statement, the relatives of Ali al-Bazzal blocked the road linking al-Bazzalieh town with al-Labweh, with burning tires, while several armed men gathered near his house, according to the state-run National News Agency.
Consequently, the family of Ali al-Bazzal issued a statement in turn, calling for avenging the martyr.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army heavily deployed in the Bekaa region in order to prevent any “unwanted security incident.”
Elsewhere, the execution news raised outrage among the relatives of the kidnapped troops who are staging a sit-in in Riad al-Solh Square, leading them to march towards the Turkish Cultural Center in downtown Beirut in order to protest, but the army troops prevented them from approaching the building. In this regard, the protesters said that the Turkish authorities might play a role in the negotiations conducted with the kidnappers in a bid to release the hostages. On another note, well-informed sources denied, in a statement to LBCI, reports shared by websites, stating that gunmen carried out attacks against Lebanese army bases in the northeastern town of Arsal.