Wadi Khaled Clans Call on Suleiman, Ibrahim to Negotiate Release of al-Ahmed

Heads of clans in the Lebanese border area of Wadi Khaled urged President Michel Suleiman and General Security chief Brig. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim to negotiate with the Syrian authorities the release of Mohammed al-Ahmed.

“We call on Suleiman, Ibrahim and all officials in security agencies to directly intervene and contact the Syrian authorities to free al-Ahmed,” the clans said in a statement on Tuesday.

On Monday, eight Syrian Alawites were kidnapped from their minibus at the Jisr Qmar border crossing in Wadi Khaled while en route to Syria.

The men were abducted in retaliation for the disappearance of al-Ahmed who went missing in Syria more than a year ago.

Ali Fahd al-Ahmed, who read the statement, pointed out that the clans denounced any kidnapping attempts.

He said that the clans are only “welcoming several Syrian nationals at their homes to press the Syrian authorities to release their son.”

They considered the disappearance of al-Ahmed as a “humanitarian case.”

For is part, al-Hisheh Municipality chief Dahham al-Nayef told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that the kidnapped Alawites are at the house of Hussein Mohammed al-Ahmed.

He noted that the Lebanese state is responsible for negotiating the release process with the Syrian authority.

Two years into a spiraling war in neighboring Syria, sectarian tensions have flared up in Lebanon.

Frequent sectarian clashes have raged in the flashpoint city of Tripoli, where Alawite fighters have battled armed members of the Sunni community.

Last week, a wave of tit-for-tat kidnappings hit the Bekaa region, pitting Shiites from the Jaafar clan and Sunnis from the town of Arsal.