BEIRUT// Lebanon’s military says it has identified the remains of a soldier beheaded by Islamist militants.
The army said on Wednesday that DNA tests confirmed the body is that of Sgt. Ali Sayid. The soldier was decapitated by militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant group, according to photos posted on social networks on August 28.
His body was handed over to military officials on Monday after negotiations with the militants.
Sayyid disappeared from Lebanon around the time militants from Syria attacked the Lebanese border town of Arsal in early August, killing and kidnapping soldiers and police.
The militants included fighters from the ISIL group and the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and the incursion was the most serious spillover of violence into Lebanon from Syria’s civil war.
Families have demonstrated throughout Lebanon demanding the captives’ release.
* Associated Press
