Al Qaeda`s Syria affiliate called on the Lebanese authorities Saturday to discuss its terms for the release of dozens of captive troops, after three of them were executed.
Al-Nusra Front killed one of the around 30 soldiers and police Syrian rebels captured in fighting in a Lebanese town near the Syrian border last month. Rival jihadists of the Islamic State group beheaded the other two.
In a video posted on YouTube, Al-Nusra accused Lebanese authorities of allowing its Shiite Muslim foe Hezbollah, which has been heavily involved in the civil war in neighbouring Syria, to block negotiations for the soldiers` release
Hezbollah "is causing all attempts to negotiate the release of the Lebanese hostages to fail," the video charges.
Al-Nusra has previously demanded that in return for the release of the captive soldiers, Hezbollah end its intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad`s regime and that Lebanon free jailed Islamists.
The Lebanese government has so far rejected the Al-Qaeda affiliate`s terms.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has urged the government not to cave in to the Sunni extremists` demands but has denied impeding efforts to free the captive troops.
Last month`s fighting in the border town of Arsal -- a Sunni enclave within the mainly Shiite Hezbollah-dominated Bekaa Valley border region -- was the most serious in Lebanon since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011.
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