BAALBEK: Gunmen and protesters took to the streets on Saturday after a Syrian jihadist group said it killed a captured Lebanese policeman to avenge the arrest of family members of Islamist militants.

Relatives of another 25 troops and policemen being held hostage cut off several roads in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon, demanding the government work for their immediate release.

A top government official said that the authorities had not yet received proof of policeman Ali al-Bazzal’s killing, which Al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, claimed via its Twitter account.

Bazzal is the fourth hostage reportedly killed by their jihadist captors from the 30 troops and policemen kidnapped in August, after a major battle in Arsal in eastern Lebanon on the border with Syria.

A fifth soldier died from wounds he suffered during the Arsal battle four days into the hostage crisis. None of the dead troops’ bodies has been handed over to Lebanese authorities, said the government source.

Late Friday, Al-Nusra posted on Twitter a photograph that it said showed Bazzal’s execution to avenge the Lebanese authorities’ detention of a jihadist’s wife, as well as the ex-wife and daughter of the Islamic State jihadist group’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“If the sisters that were unjustly arrested are not released, then after a short period of time the death sentence will be executed against another prisoner we hold,” Al-Nusra said.

Published in Dawn December 7th , 2014