Families of kidnapped Lebanese troops on a continuous sit in

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Families of the kidnapped Lebanese troops blocked on Tuesday the Qalamoun international highway, calling for serious action to secure the release of the Arsal captives.

The families said they will cut-off the highway today for three hours, noting that further escalatory measures will be taken if the cabinet fails to resolve the issue.

They also held Prime Minister Tammam Salam accountable for delays in negotiations, voicing their rejection to any attempts to politicize their case.

The al-Nusra Front released on Saturday a video depicting the execution of the Lebanese soldier Mohammad Hamieh with a bullet to the head.

The video also showed Lebanese soldier Ali al-Bazzal pleading his family to act or else he would face execution.

In the same regard, 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.

The detention of Imad Jomaa, the leader of the Fajr al-Islam Brigade, had caused security tension in the border town of Arsal, claiming the lives of 20 soldiers and leaving 86 others injured.

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

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Families of kidnapped Lebanese troops on a continuous sit-in