Tehran Says 5 Iranian Technicians Abducted in Syria

Five Iranian technicians working on a power plant project in Syria were abducted on Tuesday by an unidentified group of people, the Iranian embassy in Damascus said Thursday.

Earlier, Iran's Mehr news agency said the kidnap took place on Wednesday.

"Unknown persons kidnapped on Tuesday morning five Iranian engineers and technicians as they were on their way to work at the Jandar power plant project in Homs," a statement said.

The embassy said it had taken "every step, in coordination with the relevant Syrian authorities, to investigate the situation of the engineers ... who are providing useful services to the Syrian people."

It demanded their "immediate release" and called on the "brotherly Syrian government to take serious and urgent steps to identify the kidnappers" and free the hostages.

Asked about the incident, the Syrian foreign ministry would say only that "an investigation is underway."

Shiite Iran is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and opposition figures have accused Tehran of aiding him in a nine-month crackdown on anti-regime protesters that the U.N. estimates has cost more than 5,000 lives.

The central city of Homs has been a flashpoint in the protests and suffered a heavy toll from the repression.

Homs is also a tinderbox of sectarian tensions that risk escalating into civil war due to a massive presence of arms.