Iran seeks to free pilgrims held by Syria rebels

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has asked Turkey and Qatar to help secure the release of 48 Iranian pilgrims seized in the Syrian capital by rebels, who said they were checking their identities and would show they were involved in fighting opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

Iranian media said on Saturday that a bus load of Iranians were abducted by gunmen while on a pilgrimage in Syria, the latest in a string of kidnappings of visitors from the Islamic Republic, a country allied to Assad.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Qatari counterpart Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani agreed to seek the pilgrims' release during separate phone conversations with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Sunday.

Tehran has accused Turkey and Qatar of helping rebels fighting to topple Assad, a close ally Iran has praised for promising political reforms. Several Iranians previously abducted in Syria though have been released to Turkish authorities before returning to Iran.

But the rebels said they were not in contact with any country over the release of the Iranians.

"Negotiations with parties inside or outside Syria are not open yet before we confirm the identity of the Iranians and prove that Iran is active on Syrian lands with its soldiers and arms," Captain Abdel Nasser al-Shumair, commander of the al-Baraa brigade of the Free Syrian Army said in an interview with Dubai-based al-Arabiya television.

Syrian rebels accuse Iran of sending fighters from its Revolutionary Guard to help Assad's forces put down an uprising against his regime. Tehran denies the charges.

The interview was aired after the broadcast of a video showing armed men checking the identity cards of the kidnapped Iranians.

"We received information about the Iranians and started tracking them for two months," he said. Fighters were "still checking the documents that prove the identity of these detainees and will make our findings public in due course".

Syria's state television reported on Saturday that "armed terrorist groups" had snatched the Iranians who intended to visit the Sayyeda Zeinab mosque, a popular pilgrimage site.

But Shumair said the bus was far from the mosque and heading to areas where government forces and rebels were fighting.

The bulk of the Syrians conducting a 17-month insurgency against Assad belong to the Sunni Muslim majority, while Assad comes from the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam which is the main religion of Iran.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Mirna Sleiman; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-asks-turkey-qatar-help-free-pilgrims-seized-081443721.html

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