|
By Wassim Mroueh
BEIRUT: A recent series of
kidnapping of Syrians in Lebanon were carried out by the same group of
“four or five members,” a senior Internal Security Forces source told The
Daily Star Thursday, adding that the assaults were not politically
motivated.
“We know their names, we are
pursuing them and we will never allow this [kidnapping] to continue. The
situation is intolerable,” the source, who wished to remain anonymous,
said.
The source said members of the
gang, which is allegedly headed by Lebanese Mohammad Fayyad Ismail, move
between the villages of Hor Taala and Brital in the eastern Bekaa, but that
they do not live in either of these villages.
Four kidnappings have targeted
Syrians in Bekaa in recent months. All of the captives were released after
ransoms were paid.
Syrian brothers Hisham and Imad
Abdul-Raouf, 45 and 47, and their driver Khaled al-Hamadah, 23, were
released Wednesday after 18 days in captivity. They were released onto the
Deir Znoun road in Bekaa after their captors received a ransom of $90,000.
They originally demanded $2 million.
On Feb. 11, the three were
kidnapped when a group of armed men in a GMC Envoy intercepted their car. A
third brother, Osama Abdul-Raouf, 47, was released soon after the incident.
“They [kidnappers] assume that
Syrian businessmen in Lebanon [such the Abdul-Raouf brothers] are
financially well-off,” the source said, suggesting a motive for the
kidnappings.
On Tuesday, two Syrian
teenagers, Bara and Ali Ezzeddine, were released after their Monday
kidnapping from their home in the Karak neighborhood of Zahle. The source
said that the kidnappers called the brother’s mother, demanding a $3
million ransom. It is not known how much ransom was paid.
Mohammad Jabi, also a Syrian,
was kidnapped and freed in early February after paying a ransom of 1
million Syrian lira (approximately LL26 million) and some of his wife’s
jewelry.
The source stressed that the
kidnappings were not politically motivated.
“Money is their [the gang
members’] only goal, just like the motivation of car thieves,” he said.
Another security source told The
Daily Star that gangs in eastern and northern Bekaa are coordinating
kidnappings with gangs on the Syrian side of the Lebanese-Syrian border. He
added that such gangs have thrived amid a relative security vacuum in
Syria, where an anti-regime uprising is nearing its first anniversary.
More than 6,000 Syrian refugees
have fled to Lebanon in wake of the unrest, which opposition groups say has
killed around 7,500 Syrians.
The source agreed that the
kidnappings were not politically motivated.
Other sources said that Ismail’s
gang takes advantage of the rugged terrain of the upper areas of the
village of Brital to evade authorities. Tfeil, a Lebanese village in the
area, can only be accessed from Syria because there is no road from
Lebanon.
These sources said that Syrians
may be preferred targets by kidnappers, because of the assumption that
authorities will be less concerned about their fate than by that of
Lebanese victims.
Lebanese Ahmad Zeidan, the CEO
of the country’s largest dairy farm, Liban Lait, was kidnapped for several
days in December on the way to his factory in the Bekaa village of Talia.
Speaker Nabih Berri secured the
release of Zeidan, whose kidnapping is believed to have been carried out by
Ismail’s group. – With additional reporting by Rakan Fakih
|
No comments:
Post a Comment