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Al-Qaida militant threatens Lebanese Shi'ites after wife detained

By REUTERS

DECEMBER 6, 2014 12:39

A leading member of Syria's al-Qaida branch, Abu Ali al-Shishani, has pledged to attack Lebanese women and children and end talks to free more than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces, after his wife was detained by authorities.

The threat, delivered in a video distributed on jihadist websites, was published on Friday hours before the group said it killed one of the captive Lebanese soldiers it holds.

Lebanese authorities earlier this week said they had detained a wife of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The wife of Shishani, a fighter in the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's official Syrian wing, has also been arrested.

The women were apparently viewed by some Lebanese security elements as a possible bargaining chip with the militants to gain the release of the captive soldiers.

Sitting in front of a black flag with two militants by his side, Shishani said Shi'ite Muslim women and children and families of Lebanese soldiers were now legitimate targets.

"My wife, Ola Mithqal al Oqaily ... was taken two days ago from Tripoli, the city that is called the city of Islam and Muslims," Shishani said.

"If my wife is not released soon, do not dare to dream about the release of the soldiers without negotiations.

"All your wives, children and men are legitimate targets now," he said, using the phrase "slaves of (late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini" to refer to Shi'ites.

Many Sunni Syrian rebels and hardline Lebanese Sunni Islamists accuse Lebanon's army of working with the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah which has sent fighters to aid Syrian President Bashar Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority.

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