(The Daily Star)- Relatives of nine Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by Daesh (ISIS) have completed DNA tests, local media reported Tuesday.
Results of will be compared with unidentified bodies found by the Syrian army in an area liberated form Daesh control, said a source quoted by the local daily Al-Akhbar.
The head of Free Shia Movement, Sheikh Mohammad al-Hajj Hasan, said in a post on Facebook that the families of the servicemen "are living the longest waiting hours, fearing the unknown," and called on authorities to issue a statement regarding the matter.
Nine Lebanese soldiers were taken hostage in August 2014 when militants belonging to Daesh and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham – formerly known as the Nusra Front – briefly overran the northeastern border town of Arsal.
The militants initially took more than 30 soldiers and policemen as they retreated into the rugged outskirts of the town. Over the course of the following months, both groups killed a number of servicemen before the release of all but nine was secured.
Since the servicemen’s capture, their families have been protesting at tents set up in Beirut’s Riad al-Solh Square.
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