Families of Hostages Call for Swap as Police Open Masnaa Road

The security forces reopened on Tuesday the Masnaa road that leads to the border crossing with Syria in eastern Lebanon after it was blocked by the families of the troops and police taken hostage by jihadists.

The relatives are blocking other roads that are major arteries in northern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

But police reopened the Masnaa road after a dispute with the protesters who urged the Lebanese authorities to accept a swap between the hostages from the army and police, and Islamist prisoners.

LBCI TV said the security forces arrested two protesters during the dispute.

The soldiers and policemen were taken captive by jihadists from al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group when they overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.

The militants executed three of them and threatened to kill more hostages if the Lebanese government did not meet their demands.

The killings outraged the families, who on Tuesday said that “the state collapsed the moment the soldiers were executed.”

“A swap without any condition is the only solution,” they said in a statement.

The protesters also apologized to citizens for blocking the Masnaa road, but said it was the only effective way to stop the killing of more hostages.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq hoped in remarks published in An Nahar daily that the families would reopen the roads they are blocking when they discover that the government is “serious” in bringing the hostages back home.