Lebanon | Syria’s al-Qaida branch releases captive Lebanese soldiers

Lebanese Druze women stand next to posters with pictures of soldiers and policemen who were kidnapped by militants from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, in Beirut

Syria’s al-Qaida branch yesterday released a group of Lebanese troops held captive for over a year as part of a Qatar-
brokered swap that involved Lebanon setting free at least 11 prisoners wanted by the militants, including a former wife of the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The release caps Lebanon’s ordeal over the fate of its soldiers while also providing the al-Qaida branch known as the Nusra Front with new leverage as a group that can be negotiated with in Syria’s ever-chaotic civil war.
The fate of the Lebanese troops has shaken the tiny Mediterranean country, which has seen innumerable spillovers from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
“My happiness is beyond description,” said a Lebanese policeman, one of the 16 released yesterday, shortly after he was brought to the point where the exchange will take place on the edge of Arsal.
In Beirut, families and friends of the abducted soldiers and policemen who have held a months-­long sit-in in downtown Beirut broke into a dance and cheered as news of the released reached them.
Earlier in the day, masked Nusra Front fighters brought the captive troops in three pickup trucks to a meeting point on the edge of the town, to be handed over to Lebanese authorities who were waiting along with Red Cross vehicles. The government had bused its 11 prisoners to the exchange point.
Militants waving black al-Qaida flags fanned out across the area, with several who took positions on the roof of a building overlooking the location. The deal went ahead after trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Arsal as part of the deal.
Pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, funded by the Qatari government and based in Doha, said the tiny country had mediated the deal. The Gulf nation, a strong supporter of insurgents fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, has a history of mediating prisoners’ exchanges in the Middle East.
Yesterday’s exchange comes amid heightened diplomatic activity to end Syria’s civil war, now in its fifth year. It reflects an attempt by the group to portray itself as a more moderate player, one that can be negotiated with at a time the West and Russia are trying to separate “terrorist” groups in Syria from opposition factions they can communicate with. Zeina Karam, Beirut, AP