REPORT: Sources to LBCI: IS to release statement over case of abducted soldiers

Sources following up on the negotiations with al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in the case of the abducted soldiers told LBCI on Monday that the organizations are awaiting the return of the Syrian envoy dispatched by Qatar to Arsal to inform them of the response of the Lebanese government to the demands required to release the hostages.

The sources noted that the awaited response concerns whether the Lebanese government will agree to release Islamist detainees from Roumieh prison in exchange for the hostages, and whether or not the Syrian envoy sent by the Qataris is also tasked by the Lebanese authorities to carry out the negotiations.

The same sources reiterated that al-Nusra and IS have not presented yet a list of names of the Islamist detainees, stressing that this step might take place when the Lebanese government agrees to the prisoner swap deal.

“The Islamic State will release this evening (Monday) a statement concerning the case of the abducted soldiers,” the sources added.

Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted on Saturday (September 06) a commander of the Islamic State as saying that the group had executed one of the captured Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers for trying to escape.

"LAF soldier Abbas Medlej tried to escape from prison and after he attempted to open fire at IS members, we took control of the situation by slaughtering him," the Islamic State- Qalamoun branch said in a statement.

Also on August 28, the Islamic State posted photos and a video online depicting a militant beheading a blindfolded hostage who was identified as Lebanese Armed Forces Sergeant Ali al-Sayyed.

On Sunday (August 31), Lebanon's military said an al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group released five members of the Lebanese security forces captured earlier in August in a cross-border raid.

The men were taken hostage when militants from Syria took over the Lebanese border town of Arsal for five days before withdrawing toward the Syrian frontier, taking with them Lebanese soldiers and policemen as hostages.

The clashes were the most dangerous spillover of violence from the civil war in neighboring Syria.The clashes flared up when Syrian gunmen deployed across the region after the Lebanese Armed Forces arrested Imad Jomaa at a checkpoint.

While the release of the five men provided a degree of relief, concerns remain about the troops and policemen still in captivity.


For more details, watch Bassam Abou Zeid's full report in the video above