Two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon and nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria returned home on Saturday night, part of an ambitious three-way deal cutting across the Syrian civil war.
The Shiite pilgrims, some in dress shirts and other in suit jackets, embraced well-wishers at Beirut’s international airport, with one man being carried away on the shoulders of a crowd. Meanwhile, a plane carrying the two freed Turkish Airlines pilots landed in Istanbul, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials greeted them.
The release of the Turks and the pilgrims is part of a negotiated hostage deal that includes freeing dozens of women held in Syrian government jails. It wasn’t immediately clear on Saturday night whether any of the women had been freed, as the Syrian government and the state-run SANA news agency did not mention any such release.
Lebanese, Turkish and Syrian officials declined to immediately offer more details of the complicated, multilateral exchange. The deal appeared to be mostly mediated by the resource-rich Gulf state of Qatar, which has supported Syrian rebels in their battle against the government of President Bashar Assad. The Turkish hostages arrived home on a Qatar Executive private jet. Palestinian officials also mediated.
The nine Shiite pilgrims were kidnapped in May 2012, while on their way from Iran to Lebanon via Turkey and Syria. Turkish Airlines pilots Murat Akpinar and Murat Agca had been held since their kidnapping in August in Beirut.
“My son, my son!” one woman could be heard sobbing.
Dozens of green-clad Lebanese soldiers tried to keep order as crowds heaved forward.
A pilgrim accused his kidnappers of not offering the hostages medical care.
“We wished that any of them had any kind of values,” said the pilgrim, who did not give his name. “We were with people who couldn’t tell a female camel from a male camel,” he said, referring to an Arabic proverb to describe an ignorant person.
Other pilgrims said they were kept in dark, humid rooms for most of their confinement. They could hear heavy fighting nearby.
Lebanese officials and clerics greeted the men, kissing their cheeks one by one. A top Lebanese official who coordinated the pilgrims’ release entered the airport to the backdrop of whooping cheers and loud music.
“It was difficult, without a doubt,” said Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon’s general security aparatus. “I didn’t want anything from this deal, except to see this sight,” he said, gesturing at the waiting crowds.
The pilgrims’ kidnapping set off a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings by Shiite clansmen inside Lebanon, including that of the two Turkish pilots. The gunmen hoped to pressure Turkey to help release the pilgrims.
Turkey is believed to have close relations to some Syrian rebel groups. All three groups of captives the Lebanese pilgrims, the Turkish pilots and the imprisoned Syrian women are meant to be released in coming days as part of the negotiated deal.
The pilgrims were held by Syrian rebels who initially demanded that the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah end its involvement in the Syria’s civil war, now entering its third year. They later softened their demands to the release of imprisoned women held by security forces loyal to Assad.
Mr. Assad has drawn support from Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and members of his Alawite sect. The rebels are dominated by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah have played a critical role in recent battlefield victories for forces loyal to Mr. Assad. Hard-line Sunni fighters have backed the rebels.
It is one of the more ambitious negotiated settlements to come out of Syria’s civil war, where the warring sides remain largely opposed to any bartered peace. But it suggested that the parties and their regional backers were more prepared to deal with each other than at any other previous time in the conflict.
The Lebanese pilgrims crossed into Turkey late Friday.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Syrian rebels assaulted a checkpoint in a pro-government suburb of Damascus on Saturday, setting off a suicide car bomb that killed 16 soldiers, activists said.
Rebels led by the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front set off the bomb while assaulting a checkpoint near the town of Mleiha. The town lies beside the suburb of Jaramana, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It reported heavy fighting after the blast.
The state news agency SANA said the suicide blast wounded 15 people, most of them seriously.
At least 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the civil war.
