BEIRUT: Lebanese police shot and killed Tuesday two men thought to be members of the cell that plotted the kidnapping of seven Estonians who were held for four months and released in July, a police report said.
The two men are yet to be identified. An initial report released early Tuesday by the Internal Security Forces (ISF) and circulated through the media erroneously identified one of the dead as Wael Abbas, the alleged mastermind behind the kidnapping of the Estonians.
The report said the confusion was due to the strong resemblance between Abbas and one of the dead men.
It said the two men were killed in a dawn shootout that followed an ambush by members of the ISF Information Branch in the town of al-Bireh on the outskirts of Rashaya, Western Bekaa on the Jeep used by the suspects.
The report said that two police officers were wounded in the chase, one seriously.
The bodies of the two suspects were taken to the state-run Baabda hospital, east of Beirut, where medical tests to identify them are still ongoing, according to the report.
The bullet-riddled Liberty Jeep used by the wanted men was taken to the ISF headquarters in Ashrafieh, Beirut.
The shooting was the second such incident in less than two weeks.
Two members of the ISF Information Branch involved in the hunt for the kidnappers were wounded when their patrol came under fire in the Bekaa Friday.
They were patrolling the village of Jalala, near Chtaura in east Lebanon when their car was ambushed by three men armed with AK-47 rifles.
Seven Estonian cyclists were abducted by masked gunmen on March 23 while traveling through the Bekaa Valley shortly after visiting Syria. They were held for nearly four months, and released unharmed on July 14.
The kidnapped Estonians say that they were held in both Syria and Lebanon.
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