(1 Dec 2015) LEAD-IN:
Emotional reunions are taking place in Lebanon today after the release of 16 soldiers held hostage by Islamic militants.
The men were taken in August 2014 by Nusra Front on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Today they're part of a prisoner swap and have been welcomed back as heroes.
STORY-LINE:
It's the moment these families have been waiting for.
Out of the back of an ambulance spring dishevelled men into the arms of their loved ones.
Families greet the sons they had feared for dead and they're carried like heroes through the crowd.
After 16 months of captivity these soldiers are free.
Today's release is part of a prisoner swap deal between the Lebanese government and the Al-Qaida Nusra Front.
More than 20 soldiers were taken in August 2014, in the Lebanese border town of Arsal.
Fighting in the town and the resulting hostage crisis were among the most serious spill-overs in Lebanon from the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Some men were released shortly after being taken, but the remainder were kept hostage in unknown locations.
Four of them, including 29-year-old Ali Sayid and 20-year-old Abbas Medlej were beheaded by their captors and their images circulated widely on the Internet.
Today, 16 have been released in exchange for Islamist prisoners held by the Lebanese authorities
In the centre of Beirut there's a party-like atmosphere.
Some women clutch flowers as they wait, others hand out sweets to onlookers.
"My joy is great," says Hayfa Jaber, wife of released prisoner Maymoun Jaber.
But her thoughts are with those still captive - put at nine.
"But we are still missing the release of other military personnel. We have 25 prisoners, 16 were released and we still have pain in our hearts for the others who weren't."
Sabrine Kromba is also waiting to be reunited with her husband, Ziad Omar.
"I am still shaking. I'm very afraid of not being able to physically touch Ziad. I keep seeing his image. I'm really excited," she says.
But it wasn't always this way.
Kromba, like many other wives, has spent the last year waiting for any news of her husband.
At home in the Bekaa Valley the silence made family life unbearable.
"We cannot sleep. Life is unbearable. My son is my everything. He is my life," said Fatima Shebeh, Omar's mother at the time.
Frustrated with the slow pace of negotiations, families staged their own protests in the country's capital.
Lebanon's government said they were carrying out negotiations in secret - but the slow pace damaged their credibility and angered the families of those taken.
They burnt tyres on the roads leading to the parliament.
"On the day they detained the platoon, we spoke with him and he assured us that he was fine with Sheikh Mustafa (in charge of negotiations) and safe."
"But we haven't heard from them since," said Kromba in September of last year.
But it's mostly smiles today as the celebrations continue.
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