Lebanon loses bargaining chip in prisoner exchange deal
By arresting the former wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the wife of a top Syrian jihadist, many fear that Lebanese authorities have lost crucial leverage in retrieving the country’s kidnapped soldiers from Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.
On the evening of Dec. 5, Jabhat al-Nusra issued a statement announcing the execution of Ali al-Bazzal, a Lebanese army corporal. According to the statement, this execution came as a response to the Lebanese army’s unfair detainment of “the sisters,” a reference to Saja al-Dulaimi, former wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Ola al-Oqaili, the wife of the Syrian top jihadist Anas Sharkas, better known as Abu Ali al-Shishani.
The heinous crime shook the consciences of all Lebanese and put Lebanon more than ever in the eye of the storm, given the sectarian reactions it produced in a country on the edge of strife. This crime revealed retaliatory and even instinctive intentions, especially after the authorities’ failure to resolve the crisis of the kidnapped Lebanese soldiers detained since Aug. 2 by the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat al-Nusra.
On the ground, gunmen from the Shiite town of al-Bazzaliah, the birthplace of Cpl. Bazzal, laid siege to the Sunni town of Arsal to cut it off from humanitarian and food supplies. The gunmen demand that Sheikh Mustafa Hujairi, aka Abu Taqiyyi, be handed over. Hujairi is the leader of an armed group that provides logistical support to al-Qaeda-linked groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and IS. He is suspected of planning car bombings in the northern Bekaa Valley.
According to those demonstrating, the latter is coordinating with the jihadist organizations on the issue of the executions to put pressure on the Lebanese authorities. The best illustration of the despair caused by the crisis and the loss of confidence in the Lebanese state was expressed by some of the families of the kidnapped. In front of TV cameras on Dec. 7, female family members said they were willing to join IS to get closer to their children and try to save their lives. One of them yelled: “Our sit-ins are useless! … The mother of Ali al-Bazzal staged a sit-in for four months in front of the Grand Serail. What did she gain? Her son was executed. We decided to join the Islamic State. This way, we either come back with them or get killed with them.”
