Abductees Families Block Airport Road, Threaten Escalation

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Relatives of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria blocked Tuesday the airport road for around an hour, with some protesters describing the move as a “first warning” to Lebanese authorities.

Some of the protesters sat down in the middle of the street while no burning of tires was reported. Al-Jadeed television quoted protesters as saying that “the airport road will be totally blocked on Wednesday and Thursday as a first warning.”

On May 22, eleven Lebanese Shiite men were abducted by an armed group in the Syrian province of Aleppo while on their way back from a pilgrimage in Iran.

A previously unknown armed group calling itself "Syrian Revolutionaries - Aleppo Countryside" has claimed that the 11 pilgrims are in its custody and that they are in good health.

A statement carrying the group’s signature and sent to Qatar-based satellite news channel Al-Jazeera said negotiations to release the abductees “would only be possible after (Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah apologizes” for a speech he made on May 23, one day after the pilgrims were abducted in Aleppo shortly after entering Syria from neighboring Turkey.

Al-Jazeera showed images of men said to be among the kidnap victims as well as passports.

But Nasrallah called on the abductors to “put the issue of the innocents aside” and solve their problem with Hizbullah.

“We have said that the abductees are Lebanese citizens and that therefore the state is responsible for their dignity and for freeing them and we are helping the state as political parties. The state and the top officials are exerting serious efforts to reach a happy ending,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Friday.

Al-Jadeed revealed Tuesday that the families of the abductees will soon hold a press conference to unveil the identity of the kidnappers.

The TV network said a top Lebanese leader has refused to meet with the families, noting that they decided to stage protests “after the state failed to reach a solution.”

“Where is the U.N.? Where is the Red Cross? Where are human rights organizations,” read a banner carried by a protester during Tuesday’s sit-in.

Other protesters carried banners reading “Free Our Captives.”

Meanwhile, MTV reported that “some women who took part in the sit-in on the airport road had tried to block the road in both directions” but that “members of certain parties asked them to leave the place.”

SourceNaharnet
Comments 7
Missing samiam almost 12 years

Why aren't they protesting in front of the Syrian embassy then?

Missing peace almost 12 years

what logic is that? annoying lebanese once again? why would the FSA care if they blocked the road and burned tires or not!?

Missing rudy almost 12 years

“Where is the U.N.? Where is the Red Cross? Where are human rights organizations,”? Maybe you should ask assad

Default-user-icon Hugh Enn (Guest) almost 12 years

“Where is the U.N.?" no worries boys and girls but first things first, hand over the four saintly terrorist murderers hiding in Dahieh then we'll work on releasing the eleven saintly terrorist murderers abducted in Syria, deal?

Missing ulpianus almost 12 years

Maybe they should stop and think a little. If their party was not armed, then the world would have let the Lebanese army arm itself. Maybe, we would have had a strong state.

Perhaps then, we could have made some commando mission saving the captives ( yeah, sounds like much of fiction for Lebanese ears, but that is what any other civilized country does).

Katyushas will not bring them back...

Default-user-icon free lebanon (Guest) almost 12 years

فخار يكسر بعضو

Default-user-icon Tarek (Guest) almost 12 years

Hizbollah magic will turn against him one day. Nasrallah compolains that there is not state in lebanon. Of course not BUT he should ask himself who killed the state.