According to local reports, the deal was brokered by officials from the oil rich Gulf state of Qatar which allowed the release of 16 Lebanese security officers by al-Nusra Front while 13 prisoners, including five women, were freed from Lebanon’s infamous high security jail in Roumieh.
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The servicemen, who included members of the Lebanese army and its General Security force, were among a group captured in August 2014 during a joint attack on Arsal by militants from the Islamic State and the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, the Nusra Front.
Nine Lebanese servicemen are believed to still be captives of the Islamic State, an enemy of the Nusra Front that split with Al Qaeda in 2014.
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s ex-wife was among 13 people exchanged for 16 Lebanese security officers in a prisoner swap Tuesday.
The Qatar-brokered swap followed months of negotiations.
During her detention in Lebanon, Dulaimi denied that Baghdadi is the girl’s father.
Three women, one of them wearing a full-face veil and carrying a baby, were also shown getting out of a separate convoy of vehicles that included Red Cross cars.
The groups withdrew under a truce, but took the hostages with them.
Al-Nusra front is al Qaeda’s branch in Syria and has been conducting operations on the ground since 2012.
Pan-Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera, funded by the Qatari government and based in Doha, said Qatar had mediated the deal.
In a related development on Tuesday, the Lebanese government said it is ready to negotiate with ISIL. One of the captives, interviewed by Al Jazeera, said the group had treated them well.
The prisoners were originally meant to be handed to Al-Nusra, but a security source told AFP that at least 10 of them were returned to Beirut instead, at their request.
“I don’t want to connect this deal with the political process, which depends on the will of Lebanon to find a settlement that can fill the presidential vacancy, and activate the role of the constitutional institutions”, said Jreij. Al-Dulaimi was detained in Lebanon past year after she crossed into the country illegally with her current husband using forged identity cards.
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Negotiations to free the Lebanese soldiers suffered a setback on Sunday when al-Nusra escalated its demands. “We received our heroic soldiers and we are on our way back to Beirut”, a senior Lebanese official said.
