Syria’s al-Qaida offshoot Nusra said on Friday that it had killed a captive Lebanese soldier in retaliation for the arrest by Lebanese authorities of women identified as wives of Islamist militants.
The soldier was one of more than two dozen members of the security forces taken captive by militants affiliated to the Nusra Front and Islamic State when they staged an attack on the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August.
Lebanese authorities said earlier this week they had detained a wife of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the wife of a Nusra front leader. The women were viewed by some Lebanese security elements as a possible bargaining chip with the militants to gain the release of the captive soldiers.
Nusra warned in the statement they would execute another prisoner among the captive soldiers “within a short period” if the Lebanese authorities did not release the women.
The soldier is the fourth to be killed by the militants since August in an attempt to put pressure on Lebanese authorities to accept a prisoner swap.
Last Tuesday, at least six Lebanese soldiers were killed by gunmen from Syria who attacked an army patrol near the border.
Many Sunni Syrian rebels and hardline Lebanese Sunni Islamists accuse Lebanon’s army of working with the Lebanese Shi’ite movement Hezbollah, which has sent fighters to aid Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shi’ite-derived Alawite minority.
