Abducted Lebanese still captive in Syria: Opposition

A prominent Syrian opposition leader told Arab News Lebanese Shiite pilgrims captured in Syria are still being held hostage, despite conflicting reports about their fates.
Haitham Al-Maleh confirmed that only women among the abducted Lebanese were released and men are still in captivity. He accused them of not being pilgrims but agents of Iran and Hezbollah.
“We have seized jamming devices and night cameras from them. The way they entered Syrian territories has triggered much suspicion,” he said.
The pilgrims were snatched in northern Syria on May 22 and on Friday Lebanese Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said they had been freed and had reached Turkey. But on Saturday a Turkish diplomatic source said the pilgrims were not in the country after all, adding to growing confusion over their whereabouts.
Al-Maleh, who is now in Jeddah, said he had personally directed the military official responsible for kidnapping the Lebanese not to set them free.
“Soldiers belonging to the Free Syrian Army were behind the kidnapping of the Lebanese after obtaining intelligence about their movement. We move them from one secret destination to another,” he said.
Al-Maleh said it is time to liberate Syria from the Bashar Assad regime, which he said is committing crimes against the Syrian people. He also stressed the need for changing the strategy of the Free Syrian Army from defense to aggression in order to liberate the country.
Al-Maleh also voiced regret over the weak performance of the Syrian National Council (SNC). “The outgoing head of the SNC Burhan Ghalioun had emphasized several times that the council’s performance was not up to the aspirations of the Syrian people,” he said.
Referring to the weak performance of SNC, Haitham said the most important handicap is the absence of a permanent headquarters for the council’s executive office.
“Therefore, members of the council are forced to work without any coordination from a number of countries. We had earlier stressed the need for establishing permanent headquarters in Cairo,” he said, adding regional offices would also be opened in various capitals around the world.