By The Guardian
Hussein Yousef’s tanned face betrayed little emotion, but his eyes were pained as he leaned on the concrete barriers in central Beirut’s Riad al-Solh square.
The last time he saw his son, Mohammad, a Lebanese army soldier, was in a video 10 months ago in which an Islamic State militant was threatening to kill him. “The last time I heard his voice he told me, ‘Father, they will kill us if the state does not negotiate seriously for us.’ He was shaken and frightened,” said Yousef, his voice catching. “When I see my son like this, kidnapped, his hands tied behind his back, his eyes open, a knife near his throat that could in any moment sever his neck; that was the last horrible time I saw my son.”
