Updated at 4:55 pm (GMT+2): Families of a group of abducted Lebanese soldiers faced off riot police Friday after the latter reopened a Beirut road they had been blocking, state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Sitting with their legs crossed in the middle of the highway on the cold November morning, the families, including children, blocked the Charles Helou highway in the capital Beirut in both directions, in a desperate attempt to pressure the Lebanese government to bring back their sons.
It has been a frustrating and painful four months for the families of the estimated 29 soldiers and policemen who were abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and Syria’s al-Qaeda branch, the al-Nusra Front, during a five-day battle with the army in the northeastern town of Ersal on the border with Syria in August.
Since the abduction, ISIS has beheaded two soldiers, while Nusra shot a third.
Two hours into the protest on Friday, riot police managed to reopen the road after they used water canons to disperse the protesters and violently dragged the families away.