“This is a failed government that cannot bring the sons of its institutions back to their mothers,” a family member to a captive, Omar Haidar, was quoted as saying by the newspaper during the rally in the capital, Beirut.
Haidar slammed the government officials for “insulting the Lebanese people’s dignity” by extending their terms in office but failing to bring back the servicemen, as reported by the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the Daily Star also reported that the IS and Nusra Front had appointed a new mediator, Sheikh Wissam Masri, to conduct hostage exchange negotiations between the militant groups and the Lebanese government.
The IS and Nusra Front captured the servicemen during Lebanon- Syria border clashes in August, but has since been demanding for up to 400 Islamists held in Beirut prisons to be released in exchange for the hostages. The Lebanese government refused to meet these demands.
The IS, a Sunni extremist militant group, has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. Since June 2014, the group has been taking control of vast territories in Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate over the areas it seized. The IS and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front terrorist group have reportedly began combining their efforts in their jihadi ambitions.
