BEIRUT: Gunmen kidnapped two Turkish Airlines pilots early yesterday on a road leading out of Beirut airport, in an apparent bid to secure the release of Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria.
Turkey condemned the pre-dawn abduction and urged its citizens to leave Lebanon as the operation raised new fears that Lebanon is being dragged further into the Syrian conflict.
Lebanon Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said the pilots were forced off a bus taking them and other crew to a hotel in the city.
“A kidnapping operation took place at 3am targeting a bus carrying several members of a Turkish Airlines crew going from the airport to the hotel,” Charbel said.
Lebanese sources said four gunmen ambushed the bus, taking only the pilots and leaving seven crew who were flown home later yesterday.
The kidnapping took place just outside the airport perimeter in an area abutting neighbourhoods dominated by the Shia groups Hezbollah and Amal.
A previously unknown group calling itself Zuwwar Imam Ali Al Rida claimed responsibility for the abduction, saying it was carried out to secure the release of nine Lebanese kidnapped in Syria last year.
“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 (Syria),” said the group in a statement.
They also said Turkey would be held “directly responsible for the freedom” of the Lebanese.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent Gumurukcu said his country has no link to the disappearance of the Lebanese pilgrims in Syria.
“We have seen claims of responsibility... The Lebanese authorities are checking that,” Gumurukcu said.
Asked about a link with the missing Lebanese, he said: “If this is the case, it is definitely very wrong: we have nothing to do with that and out of humanitarian concern, Turkey has already been doing all it can” to obtain their release.
The pilgrims disappeared in Syria’s northern Aleppo province in May 2012 after touring Iranian holy sites, including the shrine of revered Shia religious figure Imam Ali Al Rida.
As Lebanon launched an investigation, relatives of the Lebanese pilgrims welcomed the abduction of Turkish nationals but stressed they were not involved.
“We condemn kidnappings in principle, but in this particular case, we support it and we congratulate those who carried it out,” Hayat Aawali, the wife of one of the nine men, told Lebanon’s Al Jadeed television.
“We thank them for what they have done; we couldn’t have done it ourselves.” Relatives of the kidnapped Lebanese have staged protests outside the offices of Turkish Airlines in Beirut over the past year, to press Ankara to help release the men.
Turkey is a strong backer of rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, including the mainstream Free Syrian Army which has denied any involvement in the disappearance of the Lebanese pilgrims.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu telephoned Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri — head of the Shia Amal movement — 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. AFP
