Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri urged Iraq and Iran to limit the visits for Lebanese pilgrims to the holy sites in those two countries to flights by air.

Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri urged Iraq and Iran to limit the visits for Lebanese pilgrims to the holy sites in those two countries to flights by air.

Local An Nahar newspaper reported Friday that the speaker contacted Iraqi Ambassador to Lebanon Omar al-Barzanji and Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi to demand them to halt all visits by land.

Around 12 Lebanese were kidnapped as they were heading to Lebanon on Tuesday from a pilgrimage in Iran. However there are no confirmed reports on the side that abducted them.

The case has triggered fears of sectarian tensions in Lebanon over the revolt in the neighboring Syria.

The daily pointed out that the organizers of all campaigns across Lebanon have been asked not to transfer the pilgrims by land in order to preserve their safety.

On Wednesday, A roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying Lebanese pilgrims in western Iraq, killing three and wounding at least 10 others.

Iraq and Iran is home of many holiest sites of Shiite Islam, to which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock each year.