By Hussein Dakroub
BEIRUT: The head of the captors of
11 Lebanese hostages in Syria said Thursday that four hostages were killed in a
Syrian airstrike in the Aleppo district of Azaz on the Syrian-Turkish border,
while the rest were in critical condition.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Meqdad clan
announced it would suspend kidnappings, but threatened to kill a Turkish
hostage if its abducted relative in Syria was killed.
In a video footage broadcast on
Lebanese TV stations Thursday night, Abu Ibrahim, the head of the group holding
the 11 Lebanese pilgrims, said: “Four Lebanese were killed. The other seven are
in critical condition as a result of the severe bombardment.”
“[Syrian President’s] Bashar Assad’s
warplanes bombarded the buildings and medical centers in Azaz,” Abu Ibrahim
said. In the video, dated Aug. 15, Abu Ibrahim was shown with bruises on his
face as a result of the bombardment that apparently hit the location where the
Lebanese hostages were held.
Abu Ibrahim’s statement put an end
to conflicting reports of the fate of 11 Lebanese who were abducted in Syria in
May. Earlier, several media outlets said the pilgrims were killed in a Syrian
army aerial bombardment of Azaz, in the northwest of Syria. Other sources said
the 11 were still alive and safe.
The Shiite hostages were kidnapped
after crossing into Syria from Turkey on May 22 while on their way back to
Lebanon from a pilgrimage to Iran. Women and elderly men were allowed to leave.
The news of the death of four
hostages came as the Cabinet decided to form a ministerial committee to resolve
the issue of Lebanese hostages in Syria, by gathering information about them and
staying in contacts with their families. Headed by Deputy Premier Samir
Muoqbel, the committee includes the ministers of foreign affairs, interior and
justice.
Speaking to reporters before a
Cabinet session at Beiteddine Palace, Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for
the formation of an extraordinary government to cope with the spate of
kidnappings that engulfed Lebanon Wednesday.
Earlier Thursday, the Meqdad clan
threatened to kill a Turkish hostage if its abducted relative in Syria was
killed.
“Kidnappings will stop during the
next few hours because we already have a great treasure [hostages] to negotiate
with,” Maher Meqdad, spokesman for the Medqad clan, told a news conference in
Beirut’s southern suburbs.
He said the family has released at
least a dozen Syrians after determining that they were not members of the Free
Syrian Army, adding that the clan still holds at least 20 Syrians. Most of the
kidnappings took place Wednesday following the abduction of Hassan Meqdad by
Syrian rebels in Damascus.
Al-Arabiya television channel said
that the Free Syrian Army arrested Hezbollah member Hassan Meqdad, who crossed
into Syria as part of a 1,500-member group whose members later scattered to
Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. Hezbollah has denied Hassan is a party member, as
has the Meqdad clan.
However, despite the Meqdad clan’s
promise to stop kidnappings, the driver of a Turkish truck and his assistant
were kidnapped Thursday night in Choueifat, south of Beirut, security sources
said.
Meanwhile former Prime Minister Saad
Hariri slammed the spree of kidnappings targeting Syrian nationals in Lebanon,
saying that the Syrian regime was exploiting the abductions to fuel divisions
here.
“The kidnapping of any person in
Lebanon, whether Syrian brothers or else under the pretext of an exchange, use
of pressure or threats for the release of a Lebanese hostage in Syria, is
rejected by us because mistakes cannot be corrected with similar ones,” Hariri
said in a statement released by his office.
“We, at this delicate, sensitive stage
in Lebanon’s history and the region, are in dire need of concentrated efforts
from all Lebanese, without exception, to do whatever is needed to release the
Lebanese kidnapped in Syria and release any Syrian hostage or non-Lebanese who
were kidnapped,” he added.
He accused the Syrian government of
doing its best to “exploit some of the kidnappings or provoke them in a bid to
fuel divisions between Lebanese themselves” after it failed in implementing
bombings in the north. He was referring to the recent case in which former
Information Minister Michel Samaha, a close ally of the Syrian regime, was
charged along with two senior Syrian security officials in a terror plot aimed
at destabilizing Lebanon.
For his part, Mikati expressed
frustration with the spate of kidnappings, saying that the government was
exerting efforts behind-the-scenes to win the release of the Lebanese hostages.
“The issue of counter-kidnapping,
threats and braggadocio [via] the media are all things that are not
acceptable,” Mikati said. “The situation is extraordinary and difficult and
requires an extraordinary government.”
More Syrians were kidnapped in
Lebanon Thursday before the Meqdad clan announced it was suspending what it
called “military operations,” prompting Gulf countries to begin evacuating
their citizens. On Thursday, 11 Syrians were snatched, 10 of them by a group
called Al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, which demanded the release of the 11 hostages in
Syria.
The group warned that it would
kidnap Syrian opposition members who support Syrian rebels. However, the group
later released five of its captives, saying it was ready to release the other
five in exchange for a videotape showing the 11 Lebanese hostages.
In response to security threats,
five Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and
Bahrain, have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately after the
Meqdad clan kidnapped more than 20 Syrians in Beirut and initially threatened
to seize more Arab nationals in retaliation for the abduction of Hassan Meqdad.
The Meqdad clan said it would murder
the Turkish hostage, Aydin Toufan, if Hassan were killed. “If they kill Hassan
Meqdad, the first person we will kill is the Turkish man,” said Maher Meqdad.
Speaking to The Daily Star in
Beirut’s southern suburbs, Meqdad also threatened further kidnappings. “We have
a slew of targets,” he said, but added that the clan would only kidnap Turkish
nationals and Syrians affiliated with the Free Syrian Army.
Meqdad stressed that his clan is “an
entity totally independent of Hezbollah” and that it does not take orders from
any party.
Security sources also told The Daily
Star that Gulf countries – particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE – have
warned Lebanon through diplomatic channels that any kidnapping of their citizens
on Lebanese soil would be met by stringent measures against Shiites in their
own countries. Turkey issued a similar warning, said the sources, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
In light of Wednesday’s random kidnappings, the
Progressive Socialist Party of MP Walid Jumblatt issued a warning to the Meqdad
family via Hezbollah that it would “react severely” to the kidnapping of any
Syrian in Druze areas of Lebanon, and the Future Movement and Salafists made
the same warning regarding Sunni areas, the sources said.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Aug-17/184911-hostage-crises-put-lebanon-on-edge.ashx#axzz23pl5xycQ
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