Lebanese soldiers held captive by Isis since 2014 believed to have died
Bodies located as part of ceasefire deal in Isis enclave straddling Syria-Lebanon border
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Your support makes all the difference.Eight Lebanese soldiers who were kidnapped by Isis militants three years ago are almost certainly dead, the head of the country's internal security agency has said.
The army had retrieved the remains of six soldiers so far and was digging for two others, General Abbas Ibrahim said, although it still needed to conduct DNA tests to confirm the identities.
Isis has held nine Lebanese soldiers captive since 2014, when it briefly overran the border town of Arsal in northeast Lebanon with other militants - one of the worst spillovers of Syria's civil war.
The fate of the ninth soldier remains unknown.
Locating the bodies was part of a ceasefire deal which took effect in an Isis enclave straddling the Syria-Lebanon border, where separate but simultaneous week-long offensives against the group saw them fighting the US-backed Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with Syrian troops on the other.
The two sides said they have driven the militants from most of the border region.
Hezbollah, which Western nations view as a terrorist organisation, has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces inside Syria since 2013.
Lebanon's main political factions are bitterly divided over the war in neighbouring Syria, and many would fiercely object to any direct cooperation with Assad's government.
In exchange for locating the bodies, the Isis militants will be evacuated to eastern Syria.
Nusra Front militants and a Syrian rebel group withdrew from Lebanon's border region earlier this month.
They departed for insurgent territory in Syria after offensives by Hezbollah and the Syrian army.
Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting Sunni militants along the border during Syria's six-year war and has sent thousands of fighters to support the Syrian president.
The group and its allies have been pressing the Lebanese state to normalise relations with Damascus, testing Lebanon's official policy of neutrality towards the conflict next door.
Additional reporting by agencies
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