Mother of abducted soldier attempts to set herself on fire

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The mother of the kidnapped soldier, Khaled Moqbel, attempted on Thursday to set herself on fire, but families of other abducted troops were able to prevent her.

This as a Qatari delegation arrived to the border town of Arsal alongside several Lebanese General Security officers, well informed sources told LBCI.

The same sources added that the delegation was accompanied by a convoy of six aid trucks for Syrian refugees currently living in the northeastern border town's tented settlements.

Earlier, families of the kidnapped soldiers said they were aware that the Qatari delegate was not in Arsal’s barren range, granting the cabinet until 6:00 p.m. to brief them on the developments pertaining to their case.

The captives’ families also asked the Director General of General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, and Health Minister Wael Abou Faour to be transparent in dealing with them.

In a press conference held form the sit-in site at Riad al-Solh Square, the protesters said the officials are procrastinating in dealing with the case of the kidnapped soldiers, threatening to "turn central Beirut into a dark city.”

They added that they wanted to hold a meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam prior to the cabinet session, but he asked them to speak with Health Minister Wael Abou Faour.

In a statement to LBCI, the relatives of the abducted troops said the Grand Serail may be among the targets of their escalatory movements. The latest remarks led the authorities to bring in security reinforcements to the Serail.

On Wednesday, a delegation representing the relatives of troops who were kidnapped during clashes with armed groups in Arsal met with MP Bahia Hariri at her office in Beirut.

The delegation quoted MP Hariri as saying that she is following up on the issue of the abducted troops, stressing that she will not reveal any information that may have a negative impact on the course of negotiations aimed at releasing the troops.

The captives' relatives have been staging a sit-in in Riad al-Solh Square in order to exert pressure on the politicians to hasten the negotiations to release the hostages kidnapped by militants from the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front in the border town of Arsal.

Turkey's Anatolia news agency posted late on Sunday (October 26) photos of the troops who were taken hostage by the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. The captives were recording a letter of appeal to the Lebanese people.

The al-Nusra Front released on Saturday (September 20) 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.

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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