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BEIRUT (AP) — The mother of a Lebanese soldier held captive by the militant Islamic State group says photographs posted online Saturday purporting to show his beheading appear to be real.
She says her 20-year-old son was "sacrificed" after supporters of the militant Sunni group posted images appearing to show a captured Lebanese soldier before and after he was beheaded.
He would be the second captive Lebanese soldier killed by the Islamic State group.
The Syrian civil war has inflamed sectarian tensions between Lebanon's Sunnis and Shiites --with Sunnis generally backing the rebel groups and Shiites supporting the government of President Bashar Assad.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's state-run news agency reports heavy fighting Saturday in the barren hills between Arsal and the border with Syria. It came hours after militants on a motorbike opened fire on patrolling Lebanese soldiers in a nearby town.
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