Report: Pilgrims Captors Want to Negotiate with MP Saqr or Wissam al-Hassan

Abu Ibrahim, the head of the armed group that abducted the 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria, refuses to negotiate with Lebanon’s General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim over their release, LBCI television reported on Sunday.

Ali Aqil Khalil, the ambassador of the International Organization for Human Rights to Lebanon, told LBCI that he telephoned Abu Ibrahim who said that he rejects General Ibrahim as a possible negotiator due to the General Security’s latest deportation of 14 Syrians to their strife-torn country.

Khalil said Abu Ibrahim asked him whether General Ibrahim was capable of publicly condemning the Syrian regime for its crackdown on dissent.

“I told Abu Ibrahim that Maj. Gen. Ibrahim is an employee and that he is not allowed, (according to the Lebanese laws), to give such statements,” Khalil added.

“But I clarified to him that a large number of MPs and half of the government are with the rebels and that the Lebanese hospitals are open to them, reminding him that Maj. Gen. Ibrahim had good ties with Islamists, especially in Ain al-Hilweh, during his tenure as head of the army intelligence in the South,” Khalil told LBCI.

Asked about a possible alternative negotiator whom he might accept, Abu Ibrahim suggested MP Oqab Saqr.

“But when I told him that MP Saqr himself says he cannot return to Lebanon and that his life is threatened and therefore he cannot engage in negotiations, he suggested Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, (head of the Internal Security Forces’ Intelligence Bureau), as another official he is willing to negotiate with,” Khalil added.

Conflicting reports emerged on Saturday on whether the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were abducted in May escaped their captors after the area that they were held in came under severe shelling.

LBCI did not specify the number of the abductees who had reportedly escaped, but said there was initial information that the captors moved the remaining pilgrims to another location.

Al-Mayadeen network said the abductor of the men, Abu Ibrahim, was wounded as a result of the shelling.

The TV stations did not reveal the area where the men were being held.

However, Abu Ibrahim later confirmed to LBCI that the men are still in his custody.

Head of the Party of Free Syrians Sheikh Ibrahim Zoabi told LBCI that the detention site was shelled and that two of the abductees had fled during the shelling.

He pointed out that the other abductees were transferred to another site.

“In the next few hours, we will probably confirm the injuries and the names of the abductees who fled”, Zoabi told LBCI.

Khalil told NBN television on Saturday that Abu Ibrahim’s group was divided due to differences.

He said that Abu Jemaa group defected and was responsible for the attack.

When contacted by the National News Agency, the head of the committee following up the case, Sheikh Abbas Zogheib, said he couldn’t confirm the reports.

But he told NNA that contacts were underway with several officials, including General Security chief Ibrahim to follow up the case.

The 11 pilgrims were kidnapped by a group of armed men in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on May 22 while returning home from Iran.

On Monday, Abbas Shoaib, managed to escape from his abductors for a few hours before being recaptured, media reports said.

Another abductee, Ali Abbas, who was allowed by his captors to talk to LBCI in a telephone call last week, confirmed that the 11 men are in the remote Aleppo area of Aazaz.