Lebanese Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Mouin Merehbi said that the Hezbollah militia had kidnapped Syrian refugees in Lebanon last week. Vice-president of the Syrian Coalition Abdel Basset Hamou called for the disclosure of the fate of the kidnapped and the provision of more protection for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
In comments he published on Facebook, Merehbi said that “the Iranian party” kidnapped a number of Syrian refugees living in the town of Aramoun last week. He said that that the kidnapped included Khalid Jassem al-Faraj, Walid Mohammed al-Hussein, and Mohammed Mahmoud al-Jassem.
Vice-president of the Syrian Coalition Abdel Basset Hamou condemned the violations being committed by the Hezbollah militia against the Syrian refugees. He said that these violations violated the international laws on the protection of refugees and constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hamou called on the United Nations to open an urgent investigation into the incident and disclose the fate of the kidnapped. He called for holding those responsible to account as he stressed that the Lebanese government is equally responsible as it has failed to rein in the Hezbollah militia’s continued crimes against Syrian refugees.
Last week, the Lebanese minister revealed other crimes against the returning refugees from Lebanon to Syria. He said that he had information about Syrian refugees who had been killed after they returned to their country in June. He added that the latest of these killings took place last week against a family in the border village of Al-Barouha in rural Homs. He cited a source inside Syria as telling him that Assad regime’s security officials stormed the family’s house and killed the father, his son and a nephew.
Lebanese newspapers reported that the Hezbollah militia kidnapped three defecting regime army officers and handed them over to the Assad regime. The officers were reportedly killed under brutal torture.
According to these reports, the Hezbollah militia kidnapped officers Ismail Rida al-Antawi, Jasser al-Mahamid and Kamal Bakir in the period between 2014 and 2016 and handed them over to the Assad regime. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
