ISIL delays deadline for executing Lebanese soldiers

Just an hour before the designated time, the militant group said it would give the government another four days to revoke the life sentences given to five Islamists in a Beirut court on Friday.

Iman Alsaid, a relative of kidnapped Lebanese soldier Khalid Hassan, burns tires during a demonstration to demand action to secure the release of soldiers held by militants. Bilal Hussein / AP Photo

BEIRUT // ISIL set a deadline to execute seven Lebanese soldiers yesterday sparking panic among family members in Beirut.

Families of the abducted soldiers burned tyres and blocked a major motorway in the city centre after the extremists said the soldiers would be beheaded by 4pm local time.

Just an hour before the deadline, ISIL said it would give the government another four days to revoke the life sentences given to five Islamists in a Beirut court.

“What else can we do? He is my only son!” said Aisha Ahmad, mother of Khaled Moqbel Hassan, one of the kidnapped soldiers threatened with execution. She choked back tears as she spoke from the side of the blocked road, which leads to the north of the country.

ISIL and militants belonging to the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra captured about 30 soldiers and policemen during a battle with the Lebanese military in the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in August.

The fighting was the largest spillover of the Syrian conflict into Lebanon, which is struggling to cope with the huge numbers of refugees fleeing the fighting.

While the government tried initially to stay out of the conflict, the country has been slowly drawn into the war, with the Shiite Hizbollah movement sending soldiers to fight alongside president Bashar Al Assad’s forces and Lebanese Sunnis joining the Syrian opposition.

Last month, Islamists fought against the Lebanese army in the north, including in Tripoli, the country’s second-largest city, killing 42.

Since the kidnapping in August, ISIL has beheaded two Lebanese soldiers, and Jabhat Al Nusra has executed one. As negotiations have stalled, both groups have threatened to kill more.

Lebanon has denied negotiating with ISIL but has expedited the trials of Islamists, one of the demands made by the militants.

The militants have also demanded the release of hundreds of other Islamist prisoners from the country’s Roumieh prison.

The demands are usually relayed by phone calls to relatives of kidnapped soldiers

Monday’s threat follows the sentencing of five members of the Islamist group Fatah Al Islam to life imprisonment with hard labour on Friday. The initial sentences were death, but were commuted to appease the Islamists.

“It was for your sake, the captives’ families, that the judiciary alleviated the sentences from death to life imprisonment,” MP Hadi Hobeish told relatives of the kidnapped soldiers when he visited a protest camp the families had set up outside the parliament building in Beirut.

Tents there show pictures of smiling men, some embracing their children. Khaled Moqbel Hassan, 24, is pictured alongside his toddler son and daughter.

His mother, Aisha, said: “I just want the government nto start working on this case. Until now they haven’t talked to our sons. And their lives are at stake.”