Lebanon exchanges prisoners with al Syria’s al Qaeda branch

BEIRUT — Syria’s al Qaeda branch on Tuesday released a group of Lebanese troops held captive for over a year as part of a Qatar-brokered swap in which Lebanon freed at least 11 prisoners, including a former wife of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The release caps Lebanon’s ordeal over the fate of its soldiers while also providing the al Qaeda branch, known as the Al-Nusra Front, with new leverage as a group that can be negotiated with in Syria’s chaotic civil war.

The fate of the Lebanese troops has shaken the tiny Mediterranean country, which has seen innumerable spillovers from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Families and friends of the abducted soldiers and policemen, who have held a months-long sit-in in downtown Beirut broke into a dance and cheered as news of the released reached them.

Earlier in the day, masked Al-Nusra Front fighters brought the captive troops in three pickup trucks to a meeting point on the edge of the town to be handed over to Lebanese authorities, who were waiting along with Red Cross vehicles and the 11 prisoners who were part of the exchange.

The gulf nation, a strong supporter of insurgents fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, relishes its role as a meeting ground for often thorny negotiations — a position helped by its willingness to maintain channels to a broad range of parties, including Islamist groups like the Afghan Taliban.