BEIRUT: The Nusra Front and ISIS are still holding 27 Lebanese servicemen hostage, Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi said, warning that the jihadists were seeking to gain access to the sea through Lebanese territory.
Speaking in an interview published Friday in French daily Le Figaro, Kahwagi said the Army had dealt painful hits to the militant groups in the Arsal area but its action remained restrained because of the hostage crisis.
“We should be very careful [given] that we still have 27 personnel still in their hands,” Kahwagi said, in the first official count of the number of hostages, which comes more than two months after more than 30 soldiers were seized by Nusra Front and ISIS militants during fighting with the Army in Arsal.