Beirut: On a day when Army commander General Jean Qahwajih reiterated the military’s renewed commitment to bring home nine kidnapped Lebanese servicemen, Lebanon confronted its sectarian demons when a 20-year-old man, Hussain Mohammad Hujeiri, was executed in cold blood.

The nephew of Shaikh Mustafah Hujeiri, a Sunni cleric who is wanted by Lebanese authorities over his alleged links to Al Nusra Front, was apparently killed by Maaruf Hamieh, the father of Mohammad Hamieh, a Shiite Lebanese soldier executed by Al Nusra fighters in 2014.

Mohammad Hujeiri’s body was dumped atop the grave of the slain soldier in the Baalbek district town of Tarayah, where sectarian differences between Sunni and Shiite residents reached new heights. It was unclear whether Hussain Mohammad Hujeiri was involved in the kidnapping and execution of Mohammad Hamieh, although the soldier’s father, Maaruf Hamieh, insisted he was.

In an interview with Al Jadeed television, which broadcast the 2014 point-blank execution that rekindled the case of 37 police officers and soldiers who were captured in August that year — nine were still believed held by extremists, as of this report being filed — Maaruf Hamieh admitted that he carried out this murder. He declared on the air that he would not rest until he also takes the head of Shaikh Mustafah Hujeiri. “We are going to kill more,” the father said, because “the blood of the martyrs will not be wasted ... This is just the beginning.”

In what was a chilling and shocking avowal, he continued: “The killing of Hujeiri is not considered a crime. I’m relieving humanity of a germ like him,” challenging security forces to come and get him.

Internal Security Forces and Lebanese Army units enhanced their deployments at the entrances of Arsal and Tarayah, and cordoned off Hamieh’s house, who was not there and whose whereabouts is unknown. Al Jadeed interview was apparently conducted from an undisclosed location somewhere in the largely lawless Bekaa‘ Valley. Hamieh wished the state had dealt with the issue of captives earlier “so that we wouldn’t have had to have reached this stage.”

The Lebanese Red Cross transported the young Hujeiri’s corpse, which reportedly sustained over 35 gunshots, to Dar Al Amal Hospital in Duris, before it was transferred to Arsal for burial.

Hussain Mohammad Hujeiri worked with a medical group in Arsal, delivering medical equipment and medicines to several hospitals in the area; his father, Mohammad, insisted Hussain was innocent, urging authorities to arrest his killers.

In an official statement, the Future Movement lamented this loss of life and deplored the crime that “claimed the spirit of a young innocent man just because he is the nephew of someone they accuse of taking part in the abduction of the soldiers.” There were no declarations issued by the government even if this killing targeted “civil peace” that could upset the country’s delicate sectarian balance.