BEIRUT: The father of a Lebanese hostage who visited his son over the weekend assured that all captive servicemen held by Nusra Front militants were in good health and being treated well, media reports said Monday.
Fadel Fayyad, the mayor of Bikfaya in the district of Rashaya, checked on his son, Maher, who is among more than 10 troops and policemen detained by the Nusra Front since August, when the gunmen and their ISIS allies briefly overran Arsal.
Fayyad said he traveled to the militants’ hideouts in the outskirts of the northeastern border town with Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri, a local unofficial mediator who is close to Nusra Front.
“All the servicemen are fine and receiving a good treatment from the kidnappers,” Fayyad said, adding that the Lebanese authorities should speed up negotiations for the liberation of Islamist inmates detained in Roumieh prison, in return for the soldiers.
He said he had met with Nusra Front commander in the area, Abu Malik al-Talli, who assured him that the hostages would be released as soon as the Lebanese authorities meet the captors’ demands.
“The state wants its military people, and we want our children, thus the state should respond to our demands for releasing the servicemen,” Fayyad quoted Talli as saying.
Between the two of them, Nusra Front and ISIS hold 25 Lebanese servicemen. Optimism about imminent solution of the long-drawn-out case resurged in recent days, after Qatar revived its mediation to secure their release.
Talks reportedly resumed with the Nusra Front primarily.
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