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Free Syrian Army Claims Kidnapped Iranians Are Spies, Not Pilgrims |
6 August 2012Syrian rebels claimed in video footage aired by Al Arabia TV on Sunday that the 48 Iranians they kidnapped on Saturday are members of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards and not pilgrims as alleged by Iran.
The rebels “captured 48 of the Shabiha (militiamen) of Iran who were on a reconnaissance mission in Damascus,” a man dressed as an officer of the Free Syrian Army, said in the video.
“During the investigation, we found that some of them were officers of the Revolutionary Guards,” he said, showing ID documents taken from one of the men.
The Iranian media reported on Sunday that 48 Iranian pilgrims who were traveling on a bus from Damascus International Airport to the Hazrat Zainab shrine on the outskirts of Damascus were abducted by armed insurgents.
In phone conversations held with his Turkish and Qatari counterparts Ahmet Davutoglu and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi requested both countries to intervene immediately to secure the release of abducted Iranian pilgrims. |
6 August 2012
Ria Novosti
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