IMAN Chairman condemns execution of Lebanese soldiers
Viernes, 19 Septiembre 2014
Islamic State militants behead captive Lebanese soldier
REUTERS
Islamic State militants beheaded a Lebanese soldier who was one of 19 captured by hardline Syrian Islamists when they seized a Lebanese border town for a few days this month, a video posted on social media showed on Saturday.
The soldier, recognizable as Ali al-Sayyed, a Sunni Muslim from north Lebanon, was shown blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, writhing and kicking the dusty ground while a militant announces he will be killed. Another militant then beheads him.
Islamic State, which declared a "caliphate" in June in parts of Iraq and Syria under its control, has been cited as a major security threat by Western governments since posting a video in August of the beheading of U.S journalist James Foley.
The Lebanese army declined to comment, but security and Islamic State sources confirmed the latest beheading.
Hours later, the group posted a second video showing nine other soldiers begging for their lives, urging their families to take to the streets in the next three days to demand the release of Islamist prisoners as a condition to escape al-Sayyed's fate.
Earlier this month, several Syrian groups, including Islamic State and Nusra Front battled the Lebanese army after the arrest of rebel commander Emad Gomaa in the border town of Arsal. Gomaa is a Nusra commander who switched affiliation to Islamic State but remained popular among Nusra fighters.
The militants seized Arsal for five days before withdrawing to a mountainous border region, taking the 19 captive soldiers with them.
Most of the soldiers were taken by Islamic State militants while Nusra kept a few soldiers and a number of policemen.
On Saturday, Nusra released four soldiers and a policeman, all Sunnis, a source close to the group said. The circumstances of their release were not immediately clear.
The militants have demanded the release of Gomaa and several Islamists jailed since a 2007 insurrection by an al Qaeda-inspired group at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon.
ISIS executes second Lebanese soldier
DAILY STAR (LEBANON)
ISIS beheaded a second Lebanese soldier, a commander with the extremist group told Turkish news agency Anadolu Saturday, blaming it on an escape attempt by the captive.
"Yes, we slaughtered Lebanese soldier Abbas Medlej because he attempted to escape," the ISIS leader told Anadolu.
The news agency said the ISIS commander hailed from the Syrian region of Qalamoun, adding that its reporter communicated with him through the Internet.
According to the ISIS commander, Medlej said he was going to the bathroom but shot at ISIS members instead. The militant fell short on explaining how the Lebanese soldier acquired the weapon he used, Anadolu reported.
Medlej, who is 24 years old, hails from the town of Maqneh in the northern Bekaa Valley.
A military source could not confirm the identity and told The Daily Star that the Lebanese Army was investigating graphic pictures of the decapitation that were circulating on social media outlets.
Earlier this week, Lebanon put to rest soldier Ali Sayyed who was beheaded by ISIS.
Sayyed and Medlej were captured along with at least 27 of their colleagues from the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces during clashes with jihadists from ISIS and the Nusra Front in the northeastern town of Arsal.
Sayyed had been captured by jihadists from the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al- Nusra Front and the IS, along with some 30 soldiers and police in the eastern town of Arsal last month.
They were seized during major fighting against jihadists who had flooded in from neighboring Syria.
The militants have requested the release of several high profile Islamist prisoners as a pre-requisite for the release of the soldiers and policemen.
The Lebanese government rejected negotiating a prisoner swap with the militants, but a Qatari negotiator has recently started a mediation to break the deadlock over the abducted troops.
Nusra Front executes captive Lebanese soldier: security source[b]
DAILY STAR (Lebanon)
Abducted Army soldier Mohammad Maarouf Hammieh was killed at the hands of Nusra Front militants Friday, a Lebanese security source and a source who is in indirect contact with the Nusra Front told The Daily Star.
The execution marks the first killing of a Nusra Front captive after over 30 military and security hostages were captured during a militant attack on the northeastern town of Arsal last month.
The sources confirmed that Hammieh, who hails from the Baalbek village of Taraya in the Bekaa Valley, was shot to death by the militants.
“Mohammad Hamieh is the first victim of the intransigence of the Lebanese Army, which has become a puppet [in the hands of Hezbollah]” a Nusra-affiliated Twitter page said Friday.
The Nusra Front and ISIS are still holding at least 22 policemen and soldiers captive. ISIS has so far beheaded two soldiers, while Nusra killed its first soldier Friday.
Earlier on Friday, two Lebanese soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb that targeted an Army patrol unit in Arsal, security sources told The Daily Star.
The Nusra Front first threatened to kill Hammieh on Tuesday, saying that he might be the first “to pay the price” of failed negotiations with the Lebanese government and Hezbollah’s continued crackdown on Syrian refugees in Arsal and along the town’s borders.
The Lebanese government has been engaged in indirect negotiations with militants over the release of the abducted security [/b]personnel.
Nusra Front and ISIS are both demanding the release of Islamist inmates from Roumieh Prison.
Condemning the executions, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am absolutely disgusted to hear of these brutal executions by ISIS militants, these are barbaric acts which deserve the full attention of the international community.
Much more needs to be done to get a grip on the situation; these animals will continue to murder and maim people until the international community unites against Islamic extremism and puts an end to their reign of terror.
We need to rid Lebanon and the whole region from these Islamists if we are to see a lasting peace.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this time."
