Captive Soldier's Wife Meets Nusra, Manages to 'Postpone Execution'
The wife of captive soldier Ali al-Bazzal announced Monday that she was able to meet his kidnappers who belong to al-Nusra Front and that she received a list of their demands.
The meeting took place in the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal, according to media reports.
“For the sake of his safety, I will not be able to reveal the identity of those who accompanied me to meet with al-Nusra Front,” the wife told MTV.
“I was not able to meet my husband and they said he is present in another region,” she added.
The wife said al-Nusra accepted to “postpone his execution for a week, pending indications that the negotiations will be resumed.”
The group is demanding “a humanitarian corridor, an end to the persecution of Syrians and the release of all detainees who were arrested after the Arsal battles,” the woman added.
“They did not demand Hizbullah's withdrawal from Syria nor the release of prisoners from Roumieh” prison, she noted.
This is not the first time that al-Nusra meets relatives of captive troops. On September 9, abducted soldier George Khoury was able to see his family in Arsal's outskirts after a mediation by Islamist cleric Mustafa al-Hujeiri, aka Abou Taqiyeh.
According to media reports, al-Nusra has 18 troops and policemen in its custody. The security personnel were abducted during deadly clashes with the Lebanese army in and around Arsal in early August, which the extremist Islamic State group also took part in.
The IS has beheaded two captive soldiers, Ali al-Sayyed and Abbas Medlej, while al-Nusra has shot dead the soldier Mohammed Hamiyeh.
Bazzal himself appeared Saturday in a video of Hamiyeh's execution which was released by al-Nusra. He appealed to his family to act before he also gets executed at the hands of the group.
Both extremist groups have warned that more captives will be executed if the Lebanese authorities do not meet their demands.
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday that al-Nusra is holding the captives at a two-story house on Arsal's outskirts. The house lies near the so-called al-Nour encampment for Syrian refugees, the daily said.
The report came a day after al-Mustaqbal newspaper said that the soldiers and members of the Internal Security Forces abducted by the IS are being held in a cave in Wadi al-Rahwa while the ones taken captive by al-Nusra are present in Wadi Mira.
"The negotiations are ongoing" to secure the release of the captives, Prime Minister Tammam Salam told reporters earlier on Monday before traveling to New York.
He revealed that he will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ask for a bigger Turkish role in securing the release of the security personnel.
Turkey has recently managed to secure the release of 46 Turkish hostages who had been kidnapped by IS militants in Iraq.
Y.R.
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