Lebanon says jihadi who beheaded soldier captured

Lebanese security forces on Monday say they have detained an Islamic State group jihadist who confessed to beheading a kidnapped soldier in 2014.

IS had abducted the soldier along with other members of the security forces during fierce clashes in August 2014 between Lebanese troops and jihadists in the flashpoint Arsal region on the Syrian border.

Of the 30 troops and policemen kidnapped by IS and Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al-Nusra Front, five were executed.

After long and arduous negotiations, Al-Nusra released 16 of them in December 2015, leaving nine in the hands of IS.

“The General Security Directorate … has detained S.J., a Syrian national, for membership of a terrorist organization,” the security body says.

“After interrogation, he confessed to being a member of the terrorist group Daesh … and to beheading the martyred soldier Abbas Medlej,” it adds, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

— AFP