Nusra Says Hizbullah Blocking Hostage Talks, Azzam Brigades Say Party Wants to 'Implicate Army'
Al-Qaida's Syria affiliate, al-Nusra Front, called on the Lebanese authorities Saturday to discuss its terms for the release of troops and police taken captive last month, and accused Hizbullah of impeding the negotiations.
Al-Nusra Front killed one of the hostages who were captured in fighting in the town of Arsal near the Syrian border. Jihadists of the Islamic State group beheaded the other two.
In a video posted on YouTube, al-Nusra accused Lebanese authorities of allowing Hizbullah, which has been heavily involved in the civil war in neighboring Syria, to block negotiations for the soldiers' release.
Hizbullah "is causing all attempts to negotiate the release of the Lebanese hostages to fail," the video charges.
Al-Nusra has previously demanded that in return for the release of the captive soldiers, Hizbullah end its intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad's regime and that Lebanon free Islamists jailed in Roumieh prison.
The Lebanese government has so far rejected the al-Qaida affiliate's terms.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has urged the government not to cave in to the Sunni extremists' demands but has denied impeding efforts to free the captive troops.
Later on Saturday, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades -- another Qaida-linked group operating in Lebanon and Syria's Qalamun -- described Hizbullah as "the greatest threat to Lebanon and its existence."
"Your silence over Hizbullah's tyranny and attacks against the Sunni community in Lebanon and Syria ... will not preserve your security and interests," the group said in a message addressed to the Lebanese people.
"Hizbullah is the greatest threat to Lebanon and its existence ... and it has rejected negotiations in the case of the captive army troops because it wants to implicate the army more and more in the battle," the group added.
Last month's fighting in Arsal -- a Sunni enclave within the mainly Shiite Hizbullah-dominated Bekaa Valley border region -- was the most serious in Lebanon since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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