BEIRUT: Gunmen kidnapped two Turkish Airlines pilots on Beirut’s airport road on Friday, Lebanon’s interior minister said, in an apparent bid to secure the release of Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria.
The pre-dawn abduction prompted Turkey to urge its citizens to leave the country, and raised new fears about the impact of Syria’s conflict on neighbouring Lebanon.
“A kidnapping operation took place at 3:00 am targeting a bus carrying several members of a Turkish Airlines crew going from the airport to the hotel,” Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told AFP.
“Gunmen kidnapped two passengers from the bus, the pilot and co-pilot,” he added.
Lebanese sources said four gunmen were involved in the kidnapping, and that seven other crew members on the bus were not targeted.
An airport source said the rest of the crew flew back to Istanbul on Friday afternoon.
The pilots were named as Murat Akpinar and co-pilot Murat Agca.
The incident occurred on the road to the airport, near neighbourhoods dominated by the Shiite groups Hezbollah and Amal, though neither group claimed involvement.
Instead, a previously unknown group calling itself Zuwwar Imam Ali al-Rida (Visitors of Imam Ali al-Rida) said it was behind the kidnapping, in a bid to secure the release of nine Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria in May 2012.
“We announce that captain Murat Akpinar and his co-pilot Murat Agca are our guests until the release of our brothers, who were kidnapped in Aazaz (in Syria) after visiting holy sites,” the group said in a statement carried by Lebanese media.
“Turkey is directly responsible for the freedom” of the Lebanese hostages, the statement added.
The group of Lebanese pilgrims disappeared in northern Aleppo province in 2012 after a pilgrimage to Iran that included a visit to the shrine of Imam Ali al-Rida, a revered Shiite religious figure.
Relatives of those kidnapped denied any involvement, but welcomed the abduction.
“We condemn kidnappings in principle, but in this particular case, we support it and we congratulate those who carried it out,” Hayat Aawali, whose husband is being held in Syria, told satellite television station Al-Jadeed TV.
“We thank them for what they have done; we couldn’t have done it ourselves.”
The kidnap of the Lebanese pilgrims was claimed by a man who identified himself as Abu Ibrahim and said he was a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army, which denies involvement.
Relatives of the kidnapped Lebanese have protested outside Turkish Airlines offices in Beirut, arguing that Ankara — a strong backer of Syria’s rebels — should use its influence to secure their release.
Turkey, meanwhile, urged its citizens to leave Lebanon and warned others against travelling to the Mediterranean country.
“Given the current situation it is vital that our citizens avoid all travel to Lebanon,” the foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
“We suggest that citizens who are still in Lebanon return to Turkey if they can, or if they have to remain, to take all measures to ensure their personal safety and be vigilant.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu telephoned Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati over the incident.
Mikati said he “condemned this act and I told him that we are doing everything in our power to identify the kidnappers and to free” the pilots.
Turkey’s ambassador to Lebanon Inan Ozyildiz said the kidnappers informed the crew that their actions “were linked to the situation of the Lebanese hostages.”
“I do not understand why this kidnapping took place while negotiations are still continuing to resolve this issue,” he told AFP of long-running talks to secure the release of the Lebanese.
A Lebanese government source said the abduction came after those holding the pilgrims failed to uphold a deal to free them in return for the release by the Syrian government of 134 women prisoners.
The source said a letter from the Syrian kidnappers said only two Lebanese would be released although there was no indication that even that pledge had been honoured.
The Syrian conflict, now in its third year, has raised sectarian tensions in Lebanon and contributed to an economic crisis in the country which is hosting more than 600,000 Syrian refugees.
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