Lebanese Held in Aazaz Ask Families to Rally at Syria, Iran Embassies

The nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria have telephoned their families, urging them to demonstrate outside the Iranian and Syrian embassies in Beirut, media reports said on Friday.

“I talked to (abductee) Ali Zgheib and everyone (of the abductees) spoke with his family and they said they're in good health,” Awad Ibrahim -- who was freed in September after being kidnapped with the group in May -- told LBCI television.

MTV said the families of the hostages managed to speak with “some of the leaders of the abductors.”

“The families were surprised at 5:30 p.m. when they received phone calls from their relatives,” MTV reported, adding that “each conversation lasted two hours and at the end of the conversation the abductees asked their families to demonstrate outside the Iranian and Syrian embassies.”

The TV network quoted the families as saying that the objective behind such protests is to push for the expulsion of Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali “because he has not yet defected” from the regime and to condemn Tehran's policies in Syria “where the Revolutionary Guard is taking part in repressing the protests.”

“The families of the hostages were meeting Friday evening at the office of Imam Sadr Campaign to discuss the possible timing of the two demonstrations,” MTV added.

Eleven Lebanese Shiite pilgrims were kidnapped by an armed group calling itself the Northern Storm Brigade in the Aleppo town of Aazaz on May 22 as they were returning home from a pilgrimage in Iran.

One abductee was released in August in what his captors said was a “goodwill” gesture while Awad Ibrahim was released in September.

Anti-regime activists in Aazaz and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have denounced Abu Ibrahim, the head of the so-called Northern Storm Brigade, as a "criminal."

The kidnappers have repeatedly linked the release of the Lebanese captives to Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a close ally of the Syrian regime, apologizing over his stances on the Syrian revolt.