Bodies of Missing Jaafar Clan Members Found in Syria

The Jaafar clan of Hermel on Wednesday announced that the bodies of two of its members who had gone missing in Syria two months ago have been found.

The clan identified the two men as Ahmed Youssef Jaafar and Mohammed Mahdi Jaafar.

According to state-run National News Agency, the two went missing while on a shopping trip to a town in the countryside of Syria's Qusayr.

NNA said the two bodies were transported to al-Batoul Hospital in Hermel.

LBCI television said the two young men, who hail from the northern Bekaa town of Sahlat al-Ma', had entered Qusayr's countryside to buy some goods.

“After their families received information from a member of the Syrian opposition saying that they were killed and buried in a certain location, the two bodies were recovered from Syrian territory and transferred to a hospital in Hermel for DNA tests, which determined that they belong to the two young men,” LBCI added.

The Syrian conflict has aggravated sectarian tensions in Lebanese and Syrian border areas.

In June, the military support of Hizbullah helped Syrian regime forces recapture the strategic town of Qusayr from rebel hands following a fierce assault.

Hizbullah says it intervened in the Qusayr area near the Lebanese border in order to protect towns in the Bekaa region and Lebanese-inhabited towns inside Syria from attacks by Islamist extermists and Syrian rebel groups.