Charbel: ISF Officer, Salafists Travelled to Turkey over Kidnapped Lebanese

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Monday that an Internal Security Forces officer and a delegation of Salafist clerics visited Turkey to follow up the efforts underway to release 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped in Syria in May.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Charbel said the ISF officials and the Salafist Sheikhs went to Ankara to follow up with Turkish authorities the case of the 11 men.

This effort brings together the different Lebanese sects, he said.

The families of the abductees visited on Saturday Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani who urged the kidnappers to release the men as soon as possible.

Charbel also expressed optimism on the safe return of the 11 Lebanese, who were on a pilgrimage in Iran and returning to Lebanon when armed men kidnapped them in the northern province of Aleppo on May 22.

“I am in a way optimistic in the case of the kidnapped and I have a feeling that they will return to Lebanon in a surprise move,” the minister said.

The rebel Free Syrian Army, which is backed by Syrian authorities, has denied involvement in the abduction.

No news has been heard of the men except for a video aired on al-Jazeera TV earlier this month in which the abductees claimed they were doing well.

The kidnappers identified themselves in the statement broadcast on al-Jazeera as "all of Syria's rebels.”