'FSA-Held' Hizbullah Fighter in Video Plea as Party Seizes Militants Bodies
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A “war of hostages” appears to have started between Hizbullah and Syrian rebels in the border region of Qalamun, with sources announcing that the Lebanese group has seized the bodies of dozens of militants and the Free Syrian Army publishing a video featuring a Hizbullah captive.
Syrian activists were on Thursday circulating the video, in which a Hizbullah fighter identified as Imad Ayyad urges his family to “meet the demands” of the FSA should they contact them.
Ayyad said he hails from southern Lebanon while websites close to Hizbullah said the 24-year-old fighter is from the Tyre District town of Tayrfilsay.
In the video filmed by the so-called Western Qalamun Coalition in Assal, Ayyad is seen sitting in front of a rock while none of his captors appear on camera.
He said he is in the custody of the FSA, knowing that Hizbullah has not officially acknowledged that the fighter was captured by Syrian rebels.
Answering the questions of his captors, Ayyad said Hizbullah tasked him with “a mission in Qara and Assal al-Ward in Qalamun's mountains,” noting that he is a “Hizbullah reservist.”
He said he was among “four Syrians and three Lebanese” guarding a “Hizbullah-commanded” post in Qalamun's mountains.
“I was in the tent and I fled to an area behind the barricades. I then reached an apple grove and sought refuge at an elderly man's place until I was taken by your men,” Ayyad said, responding to his interrogator's questions.
“There are 200 Hizbullah fighters in Qalamun's mountains and there are Syrians operating under our command … We also have fighters specialized in air defense,” Ayyad added.
With his arm bandaged, the fighter then appears in another scene after taking off his jacket.
Addressing Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Ayyad said: “We come here and we get wounded and they (other Hizbullah fighters) abandon us. We tell them we're wounded and they say 'what can we do for you, can't you see the shelling, how can we reach you.'”
“I'm with the Free (Syrian) Army and they are treating me well,” he added, addressing his mother, father and brothers.
The video was posted after Hizbullah's al-Manar TV overnight published pictures of “bodies of militants killed by the gunfire of Hizbullah's resistance fighters and the Syrian army in the Qalamun region in the assault they waged yesterday in al-Jibbeh and Assal al-Ward.”
“These bodies are now in the hands of the members of the Islamic Resistance,” pro-Hizbullah websites announced.
Al-Manar also reported the death of Mohammed Dawida, describing him as one of the most prominent commanders of the FSA.
He was killed when the Syrian army targeted his group near the town of Assal al-Ward, the TV network said.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fierce clashes "are still ongoing between regime forces, allied gunmen and Islamist brigades on the outskirts of the town of Zamalka" in Damascus province.
The Observatory said “two members of Lebanon's Hizbullah were killed in clashes with al-Nusra Front and Islamist brigades” near Zamalka.
It also confirmed that an Islamist rebel was killed in “clashes with regime forces backed by the National Defense Force (militia) and fighters from Lebanon's Hizbullah in Qalamun's mountains.”
Hizbullah had on Tuesday made advances in the region and at least eleven of its fighters have been killed since Sunday according to a preliminary toll.
Y.R.
09 October 2014, 19:38
811
They keep coming like there is no tomorrow most of them in pieces. We work very hard on trying to make them presentable for the rituals
09 October 2014, 22:22
44
Thank you ..-flamethrower-. for your continuous support of General Aoun and Hizbollah, but after yesterday's embarrassment We no longer require your services. Effective today, you are no longer on our payroll as a paid poster. Your recent inconsistencies and posts have become a LIABILITY for the party and any future posts you make are your own personal opinion or those of your new found employer. We urge you to stop by our headquarters at your earliest convenience and collect your personal belongings and your last paycheck. We have included a special end of service "bonus" package that you will no doubt appreciate.
We thank you for the time you spent as a paid employee of the party and its media outlets. We wish you success in all your future endeavors at our sister Al Manar.
10 October 2014, 07:13
43
At least this will bring some humility to nasrallah and make him negotiate from a 'position of strength' in the same manner he was dictating to the government what to do. As to this "hero" from Bashoura (but originally from the south), hopefully he no longer thinks he is the hero he thought he was on the streets of Beirut. I enjoyed watching the video
09 October 2014, 19:49
710
13 minutes ago LBCI: The government has unanimously agreed to engage in serious negotiations over the release of the captive troops.
Only now they agreed "unanimously"??! I wonder who was delaying taking the decision in the cabinet for 2 and a half months which resulted in the execution of 3 of our soldiers! So, up until now all what we have been hearing about negotiations was NOT serious? Hezbollah and Aoun are the only reason these negotiations have not been serious.
09 October 2014, 19:53
710
5 minutes ago OTV: The government is divided between supporters and opponents of a prisoner swap amid the abductors' failure to clearly state their demands.
Sorry, that explains who the opponents of a prisoners swap are, and who has been playing with the lives of our soldiers until this point. Quite clear to me
09 October 2014, 20:12
712
"_mowaten_
Cheap blackmail by cowardly terrorists who wet their pants when they see HA fighters."
But, Imad Ayyad a HA PRISONER says otherwise :
“I was in the tent and I FLED to an area behind the barricades."
09 October 2014, 21:18
58
I await the day when I will read ONE meaningful post, ONE counter argument, ONE credible or mature info from you,..-flamethrower-. , but alas!
09 October 2014, 21:05
69
cowards, terrorists, and murderers.. I have no sympathy whatsoever for these sectarians.
09 October 2014, 21:12
69
Southern, the bodies of the dead rebels were a result of the Syrian air force dropping bombs and not the heroics of your terrorist militia. The Syrian air force carried out more than 20 raids on that position alone dropping barrel bombs.
09 October 2014, 22:17
68
13 minutes ago Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: At least 25 people, including four children, were killed in multiple regime airstrikes on the town of Irbin near Damascus.
will southern and flamethrower condemn this senseless massacre or are they afraid if they do their comments will be deleted?
09 October 2014, 23:29
71
Well, at least he's with the FSA and not with ISIL, so at least this time we can actually hope that he will not get beheaded. I don't like Hizb, but until we as Lebanese resolve our own political bickering back home, I'm gonna support all efforts to get him back out of his POW status.
10 October 2014, 02:29
47
While HA's professional best trained fighters are dying busy defending Bashar Assad under the Ayatollah's battle orders, they leave their obviously barely trained poor lowly reservists to "defend" Lebanon and the Lebanese people. And while HA's professional best trained fighters where dying busy helping the Syrian regime push the Takfiris in Syria's Qalamoun to orderly withdraw, fully armed, into the Anti-Lebanon mountain range and the Lebanese border, they leave the Lebanese army and the obviously barely trained poor HA reservists to face the withdrawn armed Takfiris alone.
10 October 2014, 02:30
48
HA's priority is what the Ayatollah tells them it is, nothing else. The fact that they hold Lebanese passports is incidental, just like the multinational Jihadis they are fighting in Syria. The suffering people of Lebanon and in particular Shiites like Imad Ayyad are props used to further HA's image nothing more. For them the Lebanese border in drawn in pencil, they erase it whenever they wish and go on operations in Syria, Iraq, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Egypt and wherever else the Ayatollah needs them to go. Nasrallah himself admits this.
10 October 2014, 07:21
43
I was thinking exactly the same @cityboy, 100% the same. It is really strange, you know why? both of us are shia, both fanatics, both pretend we are moderates, both have fake accounts, both are paid to post, and many other obvious similarities. I just hope people don't get the impression we are the same poster.
10 October 2014, 10:39
53
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=657612187670096&set=vb.627672277330754&type=2&theater
Hezbollah captured scores of ISIS terrorists in the Qalamoun mountains.
These terrorists were caught during recent clashes with Hezbollah on the bordering region between Lebanon and Syria
10 October 2014, 10:40
63
thank you for the demonstration guys, your rejoicing here confirms every reason why Hezbollah has weapons and must keep them.
it is not new, we saw it all through the occupation of the south, there are too many traitors in lebanon happy to side with outsiders and aggressors against their countrymen, and therefore one cannot rely on his countrymen for mutual defense, it's like turning your back on a greedy hyena.
10 October 2014, 12:21
43
"and therefore one cannot rely on his countrymen for mutual defense"
Defending the country according to you and your hizb of terror means being in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. Your propaganda is not working; find another job.
10 October 2014, 12:35
43
defending the country does mean being in syria, as recent events have proven we cannot allow them to get to here.
10 October 2014, 13:32
21
What a shame..any Lebanese suffering is shameful on our failed politicians that have alliagiance to the foreign countries before Lebanon . Bring these people back home and enough lies on the poor citizens.
