Lebanon Holds State Funeral for Slain Soldiers

Lebanon bid farewell on Friday to ten of its soldiers captured and executed by the Islamic State extremist group, after DNA tests matched the identities of the servicemen who disappeared during battles with the group in 2014.

A state funeral was held during a national day of mourning at the Defense Ministry.

President Michel Aoun presided over the ceremony in honor of the martyrs at the Defense Ministry in Yarze. He delivered a speech on the occasion and awarded the soldiers Lebanon's highest posthumous medals.

The ceremony was attended by Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Saad Hariri, Defense Minister Yaacouq al-Sarraf, military and security officials and families and relatives of the soldiers.

Mourners threw rice and flowers at the procession as it passed later in downtown Beirut, where relatives of the soldiers had staged a sit-in in a tent for the past three years, demanding to know the fate of their loved ones.

The coffins were later taken to the soldiers' hometowns for burial, where they received heroes' welcome.

The bodies of the soldiers were recovered late last month following an army offensive to wipe out hundreds of IS militants who were occupying parts of the Lebanese-Syria border region since 2014.

Families of the soldiers were informed Wednesday by Lebanese army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun of the results of the DNA testing.

The soldiers were kidnapped by the militants during a border raid in 2014. Two of them were killed that same year, while the fate of the remaining 8 was unknown until late August when the militants agreed to reveal their burial place in return for their evacuation from the border region to IS-held areas in Syria.