BEIRUT: The family of the Lebanese soldier who was executed by ISIS Saturday called for unity against takfiri groups, saying citizens need to support the state and the Army, and not slip into civil strife.
“Our choice remains as is, Lebanon a country of coexistence for all its components,” said the statement by the family of Abbas Medlej Saturday night, appealing for calm. “The terrorist act that killed our son Abbas is a crime against all Lebanese; Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Druze.”
The Medlej family called for Lebanese to prevent “takfiris from penetrating into our national fabric,” and thus stop them from achieving their goal of division among the Lebanese.
The family also placed their trust in the Army, calling on the authorities to “act immediately to put an end to the remaining soldiers’ suffering.
“We call on all our people to show self-control and to behave in a manner that respects the heroic martyrs,” the statement said.
The Turkish news agency Anadolu had reported Saturday afternoon that an ISIS commander told one of its reporters that the extremist group had beheaded Medlej because he was trying to escape.
After the news, both the Nusra Front and ISIS warned Saturday that any attack on Syrian refugees in Lebanon would prompt them to behead more of the kidnapped Lebanese soldiers.
“We will slaughter all the captive Shiite soldiers if Hezbollah or his fans attack Syrian refugees in Lebanon,” an ISIS commander reportedly told Anadolu.
The two groups’ threat came in light of a serious concern that the second beheading in recent weeks would prompt revenge attacks on Syrian refugees or militants' relatives in Lebanon.
Medlej, according to the ISIS commander's account to the Anadolu Agency, had said he was going to the bathroom but shot at ISIS members instead. No account was given as to how he obtained a weapon. Medlej, who was 24 years old, hailed from the town of Maqneh in the northern Bekaa Valley.
Earlier this week, Lebanon laid First Sgt. Ali al-Sayyed to rest, who was beheaded by ISIS over a week ago.
Sayyed and Medlej were captured, along with at least 27 of their colleagues from the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces, during clashes with jihadists from ISIS and the Nusra Front in the northeastern town of Arsal.
They were seized during major fighting that began on Aug. 2 and lasted for five days, between the Army and jihadists who had flooded in from neighboring Syria.
The militants have requested the release of several high profile Islamist prisoners as a pre-requisite for the release of the soldiers and policemen.
The Lebanese government rejected negotiating a prisoner swap with the militants, but a Qatari negotiator has recently started a mediation to break the deadlock over the abducted troops.
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