海角大神

A portrait of a youthful Mohammed Hamiyah gazes down at the ranks of burly bearded men with gnarled hands who sit on plastic chairs聽under聽an awning, chatting quietly and muttering prayers for the dead.

Mr. Hamiyah, a Lebanese Army soldier, was executed Saturday with a bullet to the head by Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria鈥檚 Al Qaeda affiliate, which along with the Sunni聽extremists of Islamic State is holding hostage at least 21 Lebanese soldiers and policemen along Lebanon鈥檚 northeast border with Syria.聽US-led airstrikes early Tuesday聽struck IS and Jabhat al-Nusra targets in Syria, marking an escalation of Washington鈥檚 military intervention in the overlapping conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Lebanon鈥檚聽hostage crisis 鈥撀爓hich mirrors similar crises in the US, Britain, and France over Islamic State abductions and beheadings 鈥撀爃as plunged聽the country聽into a fresh drama. Its government faces escalating protests by the distraught families, worsening聽sectarian tensions and, given the deep-rooted tribal traditions of the Bekaa Valley, calls for violent revenge from the victims鈥� families.

But Maarouf Hamiyah, Mohammed鈥檚 father, rejects any knee-jerk retaliation against either Sunnis or Syrian refugees, who number over a million in a country of some 4 million citizens.

鈥淲e are very proud that we have offered to this country a martyr from our family,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut we have a few demands. We call on our people and the tribes not to assault any Syrians or Sunnis because they are innocent of what happened.鈥�

Underscoring his sentiment is the presence alongside him of several religious clerics, including a Sunni sheikh, two Shiite imams in black robes and white turbans, and two 海角大神 priests.

The hostages were seized in early August when several hundred fighters, mainly IS and Jabhat al-Nusra, stormed聽the border town of聽Arsal, overrunning Army positions in the town. The kidnappers later released the Sunni captives. Mohammed Hamiyah was a Shiite.聽Others still in captivity are聽Shiites, Druze, or 海角大神s, and two held by IS have already been beheaded, making Mohammed the third to die.

Retaliation and tribal justice

Mohammed鈥檚 videotaped execution聽on Saturday聽led to several retaliatory abductions, mainly of members of a prominent Sunni聽family from Arsal. Although they were quickly released, tensions between Shiites and Sunnis are running high across Lebanon, which has struggled to keep out the murderous sectarianism of Syria鈥檚 civil war that carries echoes of Lebanon鈥檚 past internecine wars.

鈥淲e are trying to educate the people to let them know how we think about religion,鈥� says Sheikh Ayad Abdullah, the Sunni imam of Chhim, a village in the Chouf mountains south of Beirut, who聽came to pay condolences to the Hamiyah family. 鈥淲hatever happens, we are all living in this country together.鈥�

Despite Hamiyah鈥檚 call for tolerance, his sense of tribal justice remains undiminished. He says he blames his son鈥檚 death on the mayor of聽Sunni-dominated聽Arsal and a Salafist cleric in the town believed to have close ties to the kidnappers.

鈥淭hese people [Jabhat al-Nusra and IS] have no sect, no religion. We will stay allies with our Sunni brothers, but if it takes us even 40 years, we will have our vengeance,鈥� he says.

A martyr for a Shiite clan

The Hamiyah clan is from Taraya, a straggly village wedged between a towering escarpment of barren limestone to the west and flat fertile fields to the east. Farmers grow wheat, potatoes, tobacco, and lentils; they also provide some of the Bekaa Valley鈥檚 finest hashish.聽The US Treasury Department listed a Hamiyah on its drug trafficking blacklist in the 1980s, although the individual says he has long since retired. Other members of the family are represented in the Iran-backed militant Shiite Hezbollah organization, among them the elusive Talal Hamiyah, a top security official.

Aql Hamiyah,聽the military commander of聽the Shiite Amal Movement during most of Lebanon鈥檚 1975-1990 civil war, sat in the front row of mourners, shaking hands with each new arrival.

鈥淢ohammed was not the first martyr from Taraya,鈥� he says with a soft shrug, 鈥渘or will he be the last.鈥�

The Army is beefing up its defenses around Arsal. In recent days, it has shelled positions held by the militants in the adjacent mountains and rounded up dozens of Syrians living in refugee camps around the town.聽On Friday, two soldiers were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb outside Arsal.聽On Saturday聽night, a bomb exploded in the eastern Bekaa Valley at a checkpoint manned by Hezbollah,聽which backs聽Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Jabhat al-Nusra claimed responsibility for the bomb attack and released a videotape of the night-time explosion. Hezbollah said only three people were wounded in the blast, which occurred in an area where the party has a number of military bases and training camps.

The violence continued聽Monday聽morning with Syrian airstrikes against militant positions near Arsal inside Lebanon and unidentified gunmen opening fire on a military base in the northern city of Tripoli, killing one soldier. The shooting attack was seen as a reprisal for the Army鈥檚 crackdown on the Arsal area, further evidence that Lebanon has been sucked into the regional conflict against IS and its extremist allies.

Blocking roads

The video footage of Mohammed Hamiyah鈥檚 execution also showed Ali Bazzal, a police corporal, begging his family to place more pressure on the government to accede to the kidnappers鈥� demands.聽The captive, a Shiite, said Jabhat al-Nusra had selected him聽as the next to be executed.

On Monday, Ali鈥檚 mother, Zeinab,聽and family members of other hostages held a demonstration at which they burned tires to block聽the main mountain highway to Beirut from the Bekaa Valley聽where they live.

鈥淲e are sick and tired of waiting for our kids to be slaughtered,鈥� says Ramez Bazzal, Ali鈥檚 father. 鈥淲e blame our weak government. They should not be in positions of power if they cannot find a way to free our sons.鈥�

Ali Bazzal鈥檚 best chance of survival may be his wife, Rana, a Sunni from Arsal.聽On Monday聽evening she met with her husband鈥檚 kidnappers outside Arsal to hear their demands. She reportedly said that Jabhat al-Nusra had agreed to stay Ali鈥檚 execution by a week.

In a press conference Tuesday, Ms. Bazzal lashed out at the Lebanese government, calling it incompetent. 鈥淚 threaten the sons of every official, because their lives are not more precious than those of the troops,鈥� she said.聽