Al Qaeda militant threatens Lebanese Shi'ites after wife detained
BEIRUT - A leading member of Syria's al-Qaeda 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-Qaeda'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.
