Tuesday 1 December 2015

Al-Qaida in Syria releases 16 Lebanese prisoners in swap deal

Syria’s al-Qaida branch has released a group of Lebanese soldiers and police officers held captive since August 2014 as part of a swap deal brokered by Qatar that included Lebanon setting free an unspecified number of prisoners.
The prisoners included a former wife of the Islamic State group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to a senior Lebanese security official. The woman was arrested last year.
The release ends a lengthy ordeal and drama over the fate of the Lebanese troops that has shaken the tiny Mediterranean country, after innumerable spillovers from the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

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