Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra has freed 16 Lebanese troops held captive for more than a year in a prisoner swap with Lebanon.

The exchange was brokered by Qatar and took place outside the border town of Aarsal, where the Lebanese troops had been seized 16 months ago.

Jabhat al-Nusra have attempted to use the Lebanese prisoners as leverage over the Lebanese government for months, and had recently killed four of them in an attempt to force Lebanon’s hand.

In return for the safe return of the 16 prisoners, Lebanon freed 13 Sunni Islamists aligned with Jabhat al-Nusra, including Saja al-Dulaimi, an ex-wife of so-called Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and daughter of an al-Nusra Front member.

Despite both being radical Sunni Islamist organisation and historic shared links to al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusrah and the Islamic State violently oppose each other over their plans for creating a caliphate.