[An Nahar] Conflicting reports emerged Friday evening on whether or not al-Nusra...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant...
Front had backed down from its threat to execute captive soldier Ali al-Bazzal, as the General Security announced that the Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
i mediator will return to Leb "in the coming hours."
"The General Security communicated with the Qatari side, which informed General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim that the Qatari mediator will return again to Leb in the coming hours," state-run National News Agency reported.
"Following contacts and efforts by Maj. Gen. Ibrahim, al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front backed down from its threat to behead captive soldier Ali al-Bazzal," NNA added.
For its part NBN television said al-Nusra backed down from its threat "following efforts and indirect contacts by the Lebanese General Security."
But the upbeat reports were dismissed later on Friday by al-Bazzal's wife, who said she was informed by Sheikh Mustafa al-Hujeiri ‐ who has several times mediated with al-Nusra -- that the Qaeda-linked group is "determined" to execute her husband.
"It has not backed down from the deadline it had given to the government," the wife added.
She was referring to an eight-hour deadline announced by al-Nusra on Friday afternoon.
"We have not backed down from the decision to execute the captive soldier and we have not extended the deadline. The equation is clear: freeing a female prisoner in Leb in return for halting the execution," a Nusra source, meanwhile, told Turkey's Anatolia news agency.
As the group announced its new threat, the families of the captive troops and coppers took to the street and blocked the vital Saifi road in the capital Beirut.
The road was later reopened after the families were told that al-Nusra had decided to reverse its decision.
Bazzal is one of around 27 soldiers and police who were taken hostage in August when al-Nusra and the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group infiltrated the northeastern town of Arsal through the porous Syrian-Lebanese border and engaged in bloody festivities with the army.
A few of them have since been released, three were executed, while the rest are still kidnapped.
Al-Nusra had on Thursday threatened to execute Bazzal within 24 hours if the Lebanese government did not start what it called "serious negotiations."
It also called on the Lebanese authorities to release Jumana Hmayyed, who was jugged
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
near Arsal in February while driving a booby-trapped car that entered Leb from Syria's Yabrud region.