Freed Lebanese Pilgrims Arrive in Beirut, Turkish Pilots Released
A plane carrying the nine freed Lebanese pilgrims and General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Saturday landed in Beirut around 10:35 p.m. after a brief delay at the airport in Turkey over logistical reasons, state-run National News Agency reported.
Earlier on Saturday, a Qatari plane carrying two Turkish pilots abducted in August in Lebanon took off from Beirut's airport, carrying the freed men home, as part of a swap deal also involving Syrian women prisoners.
A Lebanese military helicopter flew the two pilots from the Riyaq airport in the Bekaa to Beirut's airport.
"The freed pilgrims are in my custody and there are no obstacles and the takeoff of the plane has been delayed over some logistical reasons," Ibrahim told al-Jadeed television earlier, after several media reports said that the plane had already taken off.
"The two Turkish pilots are now in the custody of the Lebanese General Security and are on their way to Beirut's airport" after they were freed by their abductors, NNA reported earlier on Saturday.
Turkey's state news agency also confirmed the release of the pilots.
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, several MPs and the families of the nine pilgrims received the freed men at Beirut's airport.
Representatives of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam and ex-PMs Saad Hariri and Fouad Saniora were also at the airport, according to NNA.
Several media reports said Gen. Ibrahim and Qatar's Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiya were on the same plane with the nine men.
The Syrian regime's handing over of a number of women prisoners to mediators, which was the abductors' main demand, led to finalizing the swap deal, LBCI television reported.
In remarks to al-Jadeed, Syrian MP Sharif Shahadeh confirmed the release of the Syrian women.
Eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria's Aleppo region in May 2012 as they were making their way back to Lebanon by land from pilgrimage in Iran. Two of them were released in late 2012.
The abductors, the rebel Northern Storm Brigade, had demanded the release of 282 women detainees from Syrian prisons in return for the nine remaining men.
On August 9, gunmen abducted two Turkish pilots after ambushing a bus carrying Turkish Airlines crew from Rafik Hariri International Airport to a hotel in Beirut.
The families of the Lebanese abductees had accused Turkey of being behind the kidnapping. They, however, have denied any involvement in the abduction of the Turkish pilots.
“The release of the pilots and the women from Syrian prisons are part of the deal to free the nine men,” Minister Charbel said in remarks to As Safir newspaper.
A previously unknown group calling itself Zuwwar Imam al-Rida claimed the abduction, and demanded that Turkey use its influence with Syrian rebels it backs to secure the release of the nine pilgrims.
Lebanese authorities have since arrested three suspects and charged them in connection with the pilots' abduction.
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