REPORT: Families of kidnapped troops call on PM Salam to revive...

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Families of the kidnapped Lebanese troops blocked on Monday morning, from 5:00 a.m. till 9:00 a.m., the international highway and the marine road in the Qalamoun area in both directions.

The captives' families also cut-off the Zahle- Tarshish road from 6:00 a.m. till 8:30 a.m. while the Dahr al-Baydar road remains blocked despite bad weather conditions.

Later on, the families held a press conference in Dahr al-Baydar whereby they called on Prime Minister Tammam Salam to work on reviving negotiations via Qatar and Turkey in a bid to release the captives.

"We call on the Lebanese state to refrain from reopening the roads by force," said one of the protesters.

The Arsal captives' families also urged the kidnappers not to threaten the abductees so that they would have enough time to exert pressure on the cabinet.

For his part, MP George Adwan promised the protesters to raise their issue during the parliamentary session, noting that the Lebanese people must come together during this difficult situation to prevent strife.

Speaking from Dahr al-Baydar, Adwan stressed that the cabinet must reassure the families that the case of the abducted troops is a national priority, pointing out that further efforts must be deployed in order to reach swift solutions.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour stressed that relatives of Lebanese troops are blocking various roads to call for the release of their beloved ones, adding that they are demanding from concerned authorities to deal with the abduction of the soldiers in a serious manner.

Abou Faour called for holding talks with relatives of kidnapped troops, stressing that they are aware of the repercussions of their movements.

The captives' relatives have been staging sit-ins and blocking roads in order to urge the release of the troops who were kidnapped by militants from the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front in the border town of Arsal.

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.

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.

For more details, watch Edmond Sassine's full report in the video above