BEIRUT: Three Syrians were kidnapped overnight by armed men in unlicensed four-wheel drive cars, the brother of two of the men told The Daily Star Friday.
Idriss al-Sahn said neighbors had told him upon his return home in Bir Hasan neighborhood, Beirut, around 7:00 p.m. Thursday that his two brothers – Yassin and Mustafa – along with their friend, Issa al-Saleh, were kidnapped just hours before by armed members who belong to a local party.
Mustafa said Yassin, 24, is a construction worker, and Mustafa, 26, an employee at a printing press.
Idriss said he was told that three black, four-wheel drive cars and a van were used by the kidnappers, who fled to an unknown destination.
Idriss, a construction worker himself, said he immediately informed both the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese Army about the kidnapping.
He said that when he approached Hezbollah to inquire about the kidnapping, they denied any knowledge.
“We come from Al-Hasakah district in Syria. There are no protests there,” Idriss said, adding that he and his brothers are supportive of the Syrian regime.
He said their eldest brother, Adnan, headed Friday to the Syrian Embassy in Beirut to inform them of the kidnapping.
Five Syrian dissidents have been kidnapped in Lebanon since May.
In February, three brothers from the Jasem family were kidnapped. One of them had been seen a few days earlier handing out flyers calling for reform in Syria, according to Human Rights Watch.
In May, Shibli Aisamy, an 86-year-old Syrian dissident was abducted in the mountain town of Aley.
Earlier this month, Internal Security Forces head Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi said police have “dangerous information” that implicates the Syrian Embassy in the Jasem kidnappings.
He also said there were similarities between Aisamy’s kidnapping and that of the Jasem brothers.
Also Friday, a Beirut resident told The Daily Star that Syrian citizen Saleh Hamdan Mahmoud has also been reported missing earlier this month.
“His cousin who works as a janitor at my building said Mahmoud was kidnapped near Younis Café in Hamra [Beirut] the night of Oct. 7,” the resident told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
The Daily Star could not independently verify the claims
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