BEIRUT: The families of 25 Lebanese servicemen held by the Nusra Front and ISIS since August blocked a major highway in the capital Saturday and another in north Lebanon, after the latter group allegedly threatened to kill hostages.
The families said they received messages on their phones that ISIS would execute its hostages in a few hours, urging the government to act quickly.
"We announce that we will escalate our actions in an open-ended manner and hold the government responsible for the killing of Ali Bazzal," one of the relatives said, standing in the Beirut neighborhood of Saifi while others held an enlarged poster of Bazzal carrying his infant daughter.
Using cement blocks and trash cans, relatives of Ibrahim Mgheit blocked the Qalamoun road leading to the northern city of Tripoli while families in Beirut sat at the eastern entrance to Downtown, prompting police to redirect traffic.
The escalation comes hours after the Nusra Front said it had killed Bazzal, a policeman it had held hostage, and vowed to kill another unless the government released women and children who had been detained in the country.
The Al-Qaeda affiliate was referring to the arrest of two women: the wife of an ISIS commander and his two children, and the ex-wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and her children.
Nusra Front has so far killed two of its hostages and ISIS has also killed two since they took dozens of soldiers and policemen during clashes with the Army last August in Arsal, a border region.
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