Report: Militants Change Conditions to Release of Arsal Captives

The captors of the soldiers and policemen abducted from the northeastern region of Arsal in August have changed their conditions to release the hostages, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Monday.

Sources monitoring the situation told the daily that the Islamist militants are no longer demanding the release of fellow Islamists from Roumieh prison as a condition for freeing the captives.

They have also stopped demanding that the Lebanese armed forces cease their security measures around Syrian refugee encampments in the area.

They have instead urged authorities against cutting the passages leading to Arsal and its outskirts, calling for ensuring the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for the gunmen to visit their families in Arsal.

They also called against transferring Syrian encampments outside of the town and against blocking passages of vital needs for the outskirts.

The sources said that the new conditions were a response to Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji's recent statements that the advent of winter favors the Lebanese security forces' attempts to pressure the gunmen to release the captives.

The soldiers and policemen were abducted by Islamist gunmen in August in the wake of clashes with the army in Arsal.

Three of the captives have since been executed, a few were released, while the rest remain held by al-Nusra Front and Islamic State gunmen from Syria.

The families of the hostages have staged demonstrations and blocked roads throughout Lebanon in an attempt to pressure the government to exert more efforts to release them.

M.T.

H.K.