Stressing that the other Lebanese pilgrims who were abducted in Syria last May were in good health, Hussein Omar arrived in Lebanon on Saturday after he was released by the captors.

Stressing that the other Lebanese pilgrims who were abducted in Syria last May were in good health, Hussein Omar arrived in Lebanon on Saturday after he was released by the captors.

Omar’s family members and several officials and politicians, including Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, head of the General Security Abbas Ibrahim, member of Loyalty to resistance bloc MP Ali Ammar and member of Development and Liberation bloc MP Gazi Zaaiter, gather in former PM Rafiq al-Hariri international airport to welcome Omar.

The freed pilgrim affirmed that the other ten abductees were fine.
Asked about the side who can play major role in releasing the other pilgrims, Omar said: “The Turks.. They can help in releasing them.”

In this context he called on Ankara to exert efforts in order to free the other ten abductees.
“I call on the Turkish authorities to exert efforts to free the remaining Lebanese in Syria,” Omar said.
“We were treated well and the remaining 10 Lebanese are in good health.”

Omar was among the eleven pilgrims who were abducted in Syria’s Aleppo by militants there last May.
Two weeks ago, conflicting reports emerged over the fate of the abductees, with some media outlets reported that four of them or even all of them were martyred by a Syrian airstrike on the area of Azaz.

Earlier before his arrival in Lebanon, Doha-based channel al-Jazeera an interview held with Omar as he arrived in the Turkish territories.

In the interview he said that all the Lebanese abductees were transferred from Azaz to another place before the airstrike which hit the area.

CROWDED RECEPTION
As he received the freed abducted, MP Ammar stressed that he opposed all form of kidnapping against the Lebanese and the Syrian citizens, hoping that all the other abductees would be released soon.

He also said that more efforts should be exerted in order to finalize the release of the other pilgrims, urging the Lebanese authorities to protect all of its citizens and to make more contacts with Turkey.

For his part, minister Charbel said that the Lebanese authorizes were informed from late Friday that all of the eleven abductees were fine, adding that the other pilgrims would be also released soon in coordination with the Turkish efforts.

“Today we have been assured by Mister Hussein Omar that all of them (abductees) are in good health. We hope that the other abductees would be freed soon thanks to the efforts done by Turkey which has been perusing the case,” Charbel said, adding that Ankara had sent earlier on Saturday “a message in which it told us that they are working in order to release the other ten abductees.”