Qalamun Road Blocked as Bazzal Wife Urges Nasrallah, Salam to Act
Families of captive troops blocked the Qalamun highway near Tripoli for three hours on Tuesday and threatened further escalatory steps, as the wife of one of the soldiers urged the prime minister and Hizbullah's chief to act quickly.
“I threaten the sons of every official, because their lives are not more precious than the lives of the troops,” the wife of captive soldier Ali al-Bazzal said at press conference.
The wife had revealed on Monday evening that she was able to meet the soldier's captors, who belong to the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, in the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal.
“The solution is in your hand and stop evading the families of the captives. You must negotiate if you are a capable prime minister,” the woman added, addressing PM Tammam Salam.
She also called on Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to “stop the bloodshed (in Syria) and make way for negotiations” over the abducted troops.
“We're not the ones who want strife but it is rather the incompetent government,” the wife said.
“Al-Nusra said it won't stop the executions but will rather postpone them to allow the government to act,” she warned.
On Monday, the wife said al-Nusra accepted to “postpone” her husband's 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 (in Lebanon) and the release of all detainees who were arrested after the Arsal battles,” the woman added.
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.
Meanwhile, relatives of abducted troops blocked anew the vital Qalamun highway outside the northern city of Tripoli as they threatened to step up their protests.
“Expect everything from us and the Qalamun highway will be blocked for 3 hours. We will also carry out further escalatory moves,” one of the relatives said.
“Let the government take things into consideration. Until the moment, we're acting according to our ethics, but should things go out of control, the government will be responsible for that,” he warned.
Also on Tuesday, al-Nusra Front's Qalamun branch announced on Twitter that “the place where the Lebanese troops are being held has been targeted by a guided missile.”
The group also published pictures showing the remnants of the alleged projectile.
“Al-Nusra Front said the captive troops were not hurt in the shelling,” Al-Jazeera television reported.
According to information obtained by MTV, the missile was fired “by an unmanned drone.”
LBCI television, meanwhile, quoted military sources as saying that the missile fell far away from the place where the troops are being incarcerated.
Later in the day, PM Salam, who is currently in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, told Al-Arabiya TV that “the extremists are not only targeting our army bur rather entire Lebanon through sowing discord domestically.”
“Therefore, our internal unity is the biggest weapon in the face of terrorism,” Salam added.
Noting that the case is “not easy,” the premier said the government “had been hoping that putting an end to executions would be a starting point for the negotiations.”
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said Tuesday that Lebanese authorities “will not negotiate with the terrorists” unless they provide “guarantees” that they wouldn't execute more captives.
“Attacks on Lebanese troops increase our determination to confront the extremist groups,” Salam underlined.
“We do not have a 'magic wand' and we'll resort to all means to secure the release of the troops,” he said.
Y.R.
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