The Turkish national,
Abdul-Basset Arslan, who was kidnapped in Beirut on Friday, is held by the
families of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were seized in Syria in May.
“We obtained information
that the families of the 11 abducted men kidnapped Arslan,” an official source
told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Tuesday.
The 11 Lebanese were
kidnapped in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on their way home from a
pilgrimage to Iran on May 22. Conflicting reports have emerged on their fate
after Syrian government forces shelled the area of Aazaz where they were being
held.
“It seems that the
abducted Turkish nationals were split between al-Meqdad clan and the families
of the abducted men,” the source pointed out.
Arslan is the second
Turkish citizen to be abducted in Lebanon after al-Meqdad clan announced that
it kidnapped Aidan Toufan in an attempt to press Turkey to exert efforts to
release Hassan Salim al-Meqdad, who was allegedly abducted by the Free Syrian
Army in Damascus last week.
The clan denied that the
family’s previously unknown military wing had anything to do with the abduction
of Arslan.http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/50698
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