Angry Family Demands Execution of Islamist Inmates in Retaliation to Bazzal's Murder
The al-Bazzal family called on Saturday on the state to start executing inmates linked to terrorist groups to ease the tension on the streets after the execution of captive policeman al-Bazzal by al-Nusra Front.
The family also urged the state to start the executions by murdering Amed al-Atrash and Joumana Hmeid, after al-Nusra linked release to the freedom of Bazzal earlier this month.
Al-Atrash, 24, was charged in February with transporting suicide bombers to Lebanon, detonating bombs and explosive-rigged vehicles, attacking the army in Majdelyoun and al-Awwali bridge areas in the southern city of Sidon in December and launching rockets on Israel.
Hmeid was charged over her involvement with al-Qaida-linked groups. She was detained also in February on the Arsal-Labweh road when she was transporting car rigged with explosives.
Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State, who have been holding several soldiers and policemen captive, were demanding the release of five terrorists, in particular Abou Salim Taha, Hmeid, Imad Jomaa, Naim Abbas and al-Atrash.
The five are in custody for involvement in terrorist activities in Lebanon.
Al-Bazzal family also demanded the arrest of cleric Mustafa Hujeiri, who is also known as Abu Taqiyeh, and his supporters in the northeastern border town of Arsal.
The angry family vowed to block the road on any aid to Syrian refugees in Arsal, saying: “No international or local aid group will be able to use our town as a conduit to aid the Syrian refugees.”
They also warned that the blocking of any road in solidarity with Arsal would be considered as supporting terrorists.
The enraged men of al-Bazzal earlier blocked the town's main road in the eastern village of Bazzalieh near the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The state-run National News Agency reported that the town's men erected checkpoints in the village, checking the identity cards of passers-by.
The NNA also reported armed presence in al-Bazzalieh.
Al-Nusra Front said on Friday night that it had killed al-Bazzal to avenge the arrest of Islamic militants' wives and children.
The body of an unidentified Sunni man who had been shot dead was found on a road in the Bekaa Valley region bordering Syria in a suspected act of revenge for the policeman's murder while gunmen abducted an unknown number of Sunni residents from the area, security sources said.
However, NNA said that three abductees, who were kidnapped overnight by Bazzalieh residents, were freed.
Mohammed al-Atrash and Bassam al-Hujeiri, who were abducted at midnight by gunmen in a Grand Cherokee on Bazzalieh-Labweh road, were released.
The news agency reported that Syrian national Alaa Hammoud, who was accompanying al-Atrash and al-Hujeiri, sustained a gunshot wound and was admitted to Dar al-Amal University Hospital in Baalbek.
The village is not far from the border town of Arsal where a former wife and young daughter of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group that has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, were detained.
The flare-up came after al-Nusra posted a photograph that it said showed the execution of detained Lebanese policeman Ali al-Bazzal, on its Twitter account picked up by the SITE terrorism watchdog.
Bazzal was one of around 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen abducted by jihadists in August during fighting in Arsal.
"If the sisters that were unjustly arrested are not released, the death sentence will be executed against another prisoner we hold after a short period of time," al-Nusra said.
Lebanese security sources said they were trying to verify the claim.
The group did not identify the women and children it said Lebanon was holding, nor did it say how many were missing.
H.K.
D.A.
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