Lebanon says nine citizens kidnapped in Syria have been released
AFP
BEIRUT- Nine Lebanese citizens kidnapped by rebels in Syria last year have been freed, Lebanon's Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Friday.
"The nine Lebanese held in Syria are on their way to Turkey," he told AFP.
The release comes after a senior Lebanese security official travelled to Damascus to discuss a prisoner exchange deal to free the group, who were abducted in Syria's northern Aleppo province in May 2012 as their families said they were returning from a pilgrimage to Iran.
At the same time, Turkey said two Turkish Airlines pilots who were abducted in Lebanon in August are close to being freed.
The pilots were kidnapped by a previously unknown group which said it had seized the pair to secure the release of nine Lebanese citizens who had been kidnapped in Syria.
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