Lebanese kidnap negotiations fail

Deals hoping to secure a hostage exchange in an ongoing kidnapping crisis in the Lebanese village of Arsal has failed, according to security sources. A man belonging to the Shiite Jaafar clan had been kidnapped on Saturday near Sunni-majority Arsal in the northeastern province of Baalbek. The Jaafar clan retaliated by kidnapping three villagers, demanding an exchange. Hussein Kamal Jaafar was reportedly abducted following disputes over the shared profits from smuggling cheap fuel and metal between Syria and Lebanon. Shiite-Sunni tensions were stoked after Arsal locals denied Jaafar was being held in the village. Sunni mufti in Baalbek, Sheikh Ayman al-Refaei, has denied reports of an exchange, claiming the dispute had only been “further complicated.” Efforts to release hostages on both sides were ongoing, he added. Jaafar clan militants had released two injured members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the largest opposition force fighting Syrian President al-Assad in the two-year civil war in Syria. The two men, named as Anas Abdul Salam Ahmed and Ibrahim Moussa al-Mustafa, were treated in a Baalbek hospital before being handed over to the Lebanese army. The Jaafar clan hoped this perceived “gesture of goodwill” could precipitate a full hostage exchange. Calm returned to Lebanese border villages close to Syria on Tuesday morning, after shelling and heavy gunfire from Syrian armed forces hit areas near the al-Nahr al-Kabir River overnight. Cross-border motorways between Tripoli and Akkar were also reopened on Tuesday morning after armed youths blocked them during recent clashes. Tripoli appears to be returning to stability – as shops and business reopened – after days of violence between the city’s Sunnis and Alawites, in clashes seen by many as spill-over from the neighbouring Syrian conflict.