The Daily Star - Video appears to show kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in good health, June 9 2012

BEIRUT: The 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted last month in Syria said in a video broadcast Saturday that they are in good health and being treated well.

The Al-Jazeera television channel broadcast the video, in which the abductees take turns reassuring their loved ones of their safety. One of the abductees said in his statement that it was either June 5 or 6.

A few of the men addressed the political situation in Syria, where rebels -- including those believed to have kidnapped the Lebanese -- are engaged in an uprising against the government, which has cracked down violently.

“I express my support for the Syrian rebels, and no one forced me to say this,” says one of the men.

Another said, “We are not captives; rather, we are the guests of the Syrian rebels, and we hope to return soon.”

It was not immediately clear whether the abductees had been coerced into making such statements.

Separately, the Syrian rebels who abducted the Lebanese said that they would release them were they ordered to do so by a new parliament of a new civil state in Syria, Al-Jazeera TV reported Saturday.

The 11 male pilgrims were kidnapped in the Syrian province of Aleppo last month shortly after crossing the border from Turkey. They were on their way back to Lebanon following a religious pilgrimage to Iran.

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