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The Islamic State and al-Nusra Front have been calling for the release a number of Islamist inmates from Roumieh prison in exchange for the Lebanese hostages, as well as other demands.

Key official from al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front stressed Monday that the group made concessions during the negotiations conducted with the Lebanese authorities to release the Lebanese troops kidnapped in Arsal during the clashes of August, 2014.In a statement to Anatolia Turkish News Agency, the official said that al-Nusra waived their demand pertaining to the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters from Syria.

Several Lebanese troops were taken hostage when militants from Syria took over the Lebanese border town of Arsal for five days in the month of August before withdrawing toward the Syrian frontier, taking with them Lebanese soldiers and policemen as hostages. The clashes were the most dangerous spillover of violence from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

On August 28, the Islamic State posted photos and a video online depicting a militant beheading a blindfolded hostage who was identified as Lebanese Armed Forces Sergeant Ali al-Sayyed.

On August 31, Lebanon's military said an al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group released five members of the Lebanese security forces captured earlier in August in a cross-border raid.

The al-Nusra Front released on September 20 a video depicting the execution of the Lebanese soldier Mohammad Hamieh with a bullet to the head.



The video also showed Lebanese soldier Ali al-Bazzal pleading his family to act or else he would face execution.



In the same regard, Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted on September 06 a commander of the Islamic State as saying that the group had executed one of the captured Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers for trying to escape.



The captives' relatives have been staging a sit-in in Riad al-Solh Square in order to exert pressure on the politicians to hasten the negotiations to release the hostages kidnapped by militants from the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front in the border town of Arsal.