IS Demands 'Buffer Zone, Hospital, Women Prisoners' as Families Urge Official Statement

Sheikh Wissam al-Masri announced Tuesday after a brief visit to Islamic State militants in Arsal's outskirts that the group is demanding a border “buffer zone” to “protect” Syrian refugees in the area as well as a “hospital” for treating the wounded and the release of women prisoners from Lebanese jails.

“I met with the Islamic State officials in charge of the file of captives,” Masri said at the Riad al-Solh Square after meeting the families of the Lebanese servicemen held by the IS and the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front.

They demanded “protecting Syrian refugees from Hizbullah's recurrent attacks against them in Lebanon through the creation of a buffer zone stretching from Wadi Hmeid to Tufail's outskirts to Arsal,” Masri added.

On Saturday, the Lebanese army took a decision prohibiting anyone from moving from the Bekaa border town of Arsal to its mountainous outskirts without prior permission from the military institutions. The new measures are aimed at preventing Syria-based militants from infiltrating Lebanon's border, according to an army statement.

The second demand is “providing equipment for a modern hospital along with a complete medicines storehouse for the treatment of the wounded and the sick,” said Masri, adding that the IS also wants Lebanese authorities to release from jail “all women held in connection with the Syrian conflict.”

The cleric also revealed that he has received a pledge from the extremist group that it would “refrain from killing or harming any serviceman as long as the negotiations are underway.”

“Any closure of the Wadi Hmeid checkpoint would subject the servicemen to death,” he warned, quoting the IS militants.

The Lebanese troops and soldiers were taken hostage during deadly clashes in and around Arsal in early August.

“The Islamic State is demanding the immediate release of Saja (al-Dulaimi) and Ola (al-Oqaili),” Masri added.

Dulaimi is a divorcee of IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq. She was arrested at the army's al-Madfoun checkpoint in the North in recent weeks.

Al-Oqaili has been meanwhile identified as the wife of top Islamist militant Abu Ali al-Shishani. She was referred to the General Security department on December 9, according to Mashnouq.

“The battle is not with the Lebanese army and government but rather with the party (Hizbullah) that is killing their children and women,” Masri quoted the IS as saying.

Meanwhile, the families of the servicemen did not seem to be very upbeat regarding Masri's announcement.

“We call on the Islamic State to issue an official statement containing the name of the person it wants to mediate in the case of the servicemen, whether he is al-Masri or (Ahmed) Fleiti,” the deputy municipal chief of Arsal, a spokesman for the families said.

“The families feel lost and confused and we want al-Masri or other mediators to be officially authorized … We want to know whom we're dealing with and we strongly wish the captives will be released at the hands of Sheikh al-Masri,” the spokesman, Sheikh Omar Haidar, added.

“The families do not have confidence in anyone anymore and we want official demands from the Islamic State,” he went on to say.

Y.R.