Ibrahim Denies Reports on Nusra-Hostages Case

General Security chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim denied Saturday information regarding the case of servicemen abducted by the al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front.

“Reports concerning the case are false,” Ibrahim said in a statement issued by his press office.

The statement remarked that Ibrahim is “personally in charge for negotiations with al-Nusra via the Qatari-appointed mediator.”

Earlier on Saturday, al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported that the release of captives taken hostage by al-Nusra Front reached zero hour as the Lebanese state is carrying out the necessary measures to conduct a prisoners swap deal with the group.

Judicial sources told the daily that the state is “preparing the files of several inmates” who will be released in exchange for the abducted servicemen.

The daily said that 16 prisoners will be freed from Lebanese jails in one batch as the Qatari negotiator arrived in Beirut on Thursday to put the final touches on the deal.

Concerned sources expressed optimism that the captive men would return to their families by next week.

Al-Nusra Front has in its captivity 16 soldiers and policemen, while nine remain held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The soldiers and policemen were abducted by gunmen in the wake of clashes in the northeastern border town of Arsal.

A few of them have since been released and four were executed.

IS jihadists also took hostages with them when they overran Arsal but the negotiations with the group have stalled over their crippling demands.

H.K.

D.A.