The 48 Iranians Seized by Syria Rebels back Home again

The 48 Iranians held hostage by rebels for more than five months in Syria and freed in a prisoner exchange arrived back in Tehran on Thursday to an official welcome, the official IRNA news agency said.

The rebels agreed to swap the Iranians, described by the Islamic republic as pilgrims but by the rebels and Washington as members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, for more than 2,000 detainees held by the Syrian regime.

Wednesday's prisoner exchange, the largest in Syria's 21-month old conflict, was arranged through mediation by Turkey and Qatar, according to several sources.

A Turkish aid group, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), said it spearheaded the swap of the Iranians for 2,139 detainees held by President Bashar Assad's regime, mostly Syrians but including a few foreigners such as Turks.

The rebels who had captured the 48 also accused some of them of being Revolutionary Guards sent to Syria on a "reconnaissance" mission. They had shown the captives and military ID cards they had been carrying in an online video.

Tehran at first presented all 48 as pilgrims before later acknowledging that some of them were "retired" members of the Revolutionary Guards corps.

The rebels who held the Iranians threatened at least twice to kill their hostages if the Syrian army did not pull back from the outskirts of Damascus.

After their release on Wednesday, the Iranians looked visibly exhausted, with some weeping, an AFP correspondent in Damascus reported.

None of them spoke to the media about their months-long ordeal.

But Iran's ambassador in Syria, Mohammed Reza Shibani, told reporters they were kidnapped in southwestern Damascus in early August on the road linking the airport with the Sayyida Zainab district, site of an important Shiite Muslim shrine.