One of 10 kidnapped Lebanese in Syria to be freed today, cleric

Salafist cleric Bilal Duqmaq told NOW on Tuesday that one of the ten kidnapped Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria will be released within the next few hours.

“Awad Ibrahim, one of the ten kidnapped Lebanese, will be released within the next few hours,” Doqmaq said.

He added that Ibrahim will be handed over to Turkish authorities which in turn will transfer him to Lebanon.

“Unless an emergency comes up, Awad will be freed today,” he added.

One of the pilgrims, Hussein Ali Omar, was released late August.

Last May, 11 Shiite pilgrims were abducted in Syria’s Aleppo while returning from a pilgrimage in Iran. Later in the month, a previously unknown armed group calling itself the “Syrian Revolutionaries—Aleppo Province” said that it was holding the group, while the Free Syrian Army had repeatedly denied its involvement in the abduction.

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