BEIRUT: Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate the Nusra Front rejected an offer to treat one of its fighters at a hospital inside Lebanon in exchange for the release of three Lebanese captives being held by the jihadists, a commander said Monday.
In comments to Anadulo News Agency, a Nusra commander said the group had asked General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim via a mediator to treat a fighter wounded during Sunday’s fierce border clashes with Hezbollah in a Lebanese hospital.
“We tried to move him to Arsal but the Lebanese Army checkpoint prevented us. We communicated with Abbas Ibrahim who demanded the release of three captive soldiers so he would allow us to transfer [the fighter] to Arsal for treatment,” the unidentified commander told the Turkish agency.
“We rejected that and informed him that we did not want to launch a battle against them, but his answer was that he would prevent us from transferring any wounded.”
An ISIS commander in Qalamoun told the same agency that the Lebanese government was procrastinating in negotiations, saying his group’s demands were not impossible to achieve.
Meanwhile, relatives of the captive Lebanese security personnel and soldiers have vowed to escalate their protest movement in order to press the government to do more to negotiate the release of their loved ones from Islamist militants.
Rana Fliti, the wife of captured soldier Ali Bazzal, said that as of Monday night the families had not yet taken a collective decision, but some have threatened to close the airport road, which could strand travelers.
“We need to coordinate between all the families and every family has an opinion,” she said.
Over the weekend, Fliti was relieved to receive a phone call from her husband wishing her a happy Eid al-Adha and reassuring her that he and the other captives were in good health and being treated well.
“He told me whenever the Lebanese Army carries out arrests targeting Syrians they are in greater danger, but when the Army backs off they feel at ease,” she said, adding that he encouraged her to continue her protest efforts.
“He asked me to pressure the government as much as possible because the government is not paying attention to them, and that they have lost trust in the government,” she said.
Nazha Geagea, wife of policeman Pierre Geagea, received no such assurance over the weekend, and vowed to cut off the airport road soon if the families do not receive proof that the government is actively negotiating for the captives release.
She said the families were scheduled to meet with Beirut municipal officials this week and that the outcome of that meeting would determine the families’ next actions. She added that the main Bekaa lifeline, Dahr al-Baidar Highway, would remain closed until their relatives were returned to them.
“We apologize to the people,” affected by the closure, she said. “It is not the people’s fault, they are miserable like us, but there is no other way to get our message across.”
Earlier Monday, the frustrated relatives reopened some roads in east and north Lebanon after blocking multiple arteries, effectively sealing off the Bekaa Valley.
Dahr al-Baidar, which links Beirut and the Bekaa, remained shut, however, as it has been since protesters first erected tents on the road on Sept. 24. The protesters also erected high sand mounds Monday across the highway of Dahr al-Baidar, blocking all access, including a narrow passageway that had been kept open for ambulances and emergency cases, disrupting traffic on the Bekaa’s main artery for a second week.
Spokespersons for the captives’ families said they had decided to reopen the Zahle-Tarshish road, a secondary route linking Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Qalamoun highway leading to north Lebanon’s main city of Tripoli, to facilitate the movement of goods and people, after they had conveyed their message to the authorities.
The near-total isolation of the Bekaa for several hours had prompted many desperate travelers, including passenger vans and pick-up truck drivers transporting agricultural products from the fertile valley, to climb through dirt roads in sometimes rugged terrain to access the coastal area and Mount Lebanon at high risks.
In north Lebanon, the relatives of captive soldier Ibrahim Mogheit cut off the highway in Qalamoun, severing access to the main city of Tripoli for at least four hours. The sources said traffic was redirected to the narrow coastal road, causing long trails of stranded cars.
The concerted road cuts are meant to express the families’ growing frustration with the government’s procrastination and reluctance to trade Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison for the some 21 captive Army troops and policemen held by the Nusra Front and ISIS, the sources added.
Sports Minister Abdul-Muttaleb al-Hinawi deplored the continued road cuts, which he said would only “harm and disrupt people’s businesses” while acknowledging that the families’ actions were understandable. “Blocking the roads would only lead to confusion and harming people’s businesses, but the demands of the relatives [of the captives] are totally legal,” Hinawi said to Voice of Lebanon Radio.
The captives were among more than 30 personnel captured during battles in the border town of Arsal between the Army and the militants in August. Nusra Front has released seven captives and executed one, and ISIS beheaded two, in an attempt to intimidate the government into accepting their reported demand of releasing the Islamist prisoners in return for the captives’ freedom.
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