By
Rima S. Aboulmona
BEIRUT:
Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said Wednesday that his party has been assured of the
release of at least 11 Lebanese men kidnapped a day earlier in Syria.
“We’ve
been promised they will be released,” Ammar told The Daily Star in reference to
the Lebanese hostages who were abducted by armed Syrians in Aleppo Tuesday
while aboard two buses. They were returning from a visit to Shiite holy sites
in Iran.
“Communication
on the international, regional and local levels is taking place around the
clock in an effort to win their release,” he said.
Ammar
said efforts were made to enlist the aid of “Turkey and several Gulf states as
well as world organizations to pressure the gunmen to free the hostages.”
There
was a discrepancy in the figures cited regarding the number of hostages. While
some Lebanese officials put the number at 13, Ammar said the hostages are
between 11 and 13.
In
response to a question, Ammar said the kidnappers did not make any demands. But
the hostages’ relatives disagree.
“The
hostages are being held by an extreme Syrian fundamentalist group in hopes of
swapping them for those of their comrades held [by Assad's forces],” one
relative told The Daily Star. He spoke on condition of anonymity and said that
the hostages are unlikely to be released anytime soon as more negotiations are
needed.
"The
ordeal will probably take another day or two or three," he added.
Other
hostages' relatives were quoted as blaming the rebel Free Syrian Army for the
abduction. "The Free Syrian Army said they took them. They let the women
go and kept the men. They told them that they would keep them until the Syrian
army releases FSA detainees,” a relative of one of the men was quoted by
Reuters as saying.
An
FSA spokesperson strongly denied that the group was behind the abduction.
“When
we crossed the border, around 40 gunmen stopped the bus and forced it into a
nearby orchard and said women should stay on the bus and men should get out,”
Hayat Awali, who identified herself as a pilgrim, told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV
from Aleppo.
Quoting
a member of the Syrian opposition, Reuters reported that Syrian forces launched
raids with tanks and other armored vehicles in an area of northern Aleppo
province near the site where the abduction had taken place.
Foreign
Minister Adnan Mansour, speaking Wednesday to the Kataeb-run Voice of Lebanon
radio station, said the kidnapping ordeal would “end today” as the whereabouts
of the captives has been uncovered.
Mansour
also confirmed that the Lebanese government has been in contact with a number
of Arab officials as well as with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Of
the pilgrims, 51 women and four men were not abducted. They arrived at Beirut
airport after midnight.
Inham
Yatim, a pilgrim, said that armed men in a white car forced them to move to an
orchard under the pretext of protecting them from shelling. The male pilgrims
were then handcuffed and made to face a wall.
Mansour
said in comments shortly after news of the abduction broke Tuesday that the
kidnappers belonged to an opposition Syrian group.
Syria's
political opposition in exile, the Syrian National Council, called on rebels in
Syria Wednesday to help secure the release of the Lebanese hostages.
"The
Syrian National Council condemns any kidnappings, assault or terrorizing of our
Lebanese brothers and demands their immediate release," an SNC statement
said.
The
Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said a "group of armed terrorists"
kidnapped 11 Lebanese citizens and the Syrian bus driver.
On
hearing news of the abduction, angry relatives took to the streets of Beirut’s
southern suburbs – where most of the kidnapped live – blocking roads with
burning tires. The roads reopened soon after Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed
Hasan Nasrallah called for calm.
“On behalf of Hezbollah and
Amal [Movement], I call on all relatives and supporters in the various regions
to cooperate to end the closure of roads. Blocking roads does no good,” said
Nasrallah on Al-Manar TV, expressing concern over attempts to create conflict
between the people and the Lebanese Army.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/May-23/174378-hezbollah-wins-pledge-that-lebanese-hostages-will-be-released.ashx#axzz1vhEIdAun
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