Freed Lebanese, Turkish hostages fly home after deal

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BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two kidnapped Turkish pilots departed from Beirut airport on Saturday night and nine Lebanese hostages freed from Syria took off from Istanbul, security sources said, completing a hostage release deal after months of uncertainty.

The Lebanese, seized by Syrian rebels in May 2012, were freed and left northern Syria a day earlier as part of the deal negotiated by Qatari mediators.

Security sources said the agreement required that the Lebanese hostages did not leave Turkey until the Turkish ambassador in Beirut had seen the Turkish pilots, who had been kidnapped in retaliation for the snatching of the Lebanese.

The two groups of hostages then took off for their home countries, officials in Beirut and Istanbul said.

The hostages' release may in fact be a three-way deal, some Lebanese security sources said. They said the release of the Lebanese was originally contingent on the Syrian government's freeing of prisoners in state detention centers.

An opposition monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the government had released dozens of prisoners over the past few days as part of this agreement.

The kidnappings highlight how complex and regionalized Syria's 2-1/2-year conflict has become. The civil war has acquired sectarian dimensions that has pulled in its neighbors.

Sunni Muslim countries such as Turkey largely back the Sunni-led uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Shi'ite Iran backs Assad, as does the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is Shi'ite and supported by Tehran. Assad is from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

The Lebanese hostages' families say they were religious pilgrims, but their kidnappers accused them of belonging to Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Assad's forces in Syria.

The Turkish pilots were kidnapped by the family of one of the Lebanese hostages in order to press the Turkish government to help secure the group's release. Turkey has some influence with the Syrian opposition, having offered refuge and support to the rebels fighting Assad.

Crowds of cheering relatives and friends gathered at Beirut airport and near the hostages' homes to celebrate their return.

"The civil war has acquired sectarian dimensions that has pulled in its neighbors.Sunni Muslim countries such as Turkey largely back the Sunni-led uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.Shi'ite Iran backs Assad, as does the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is Shi'ite and supported by Tehran"Some raised pictures of Assad and waved Syrian flags and Hezbollah's yellow banner.

A Lebanese security source released pictures of both the Turkish and Lebanese hostages, all of whom looked healthy. The Lebanese men were inside a jet, waiting to take off. The Turkish pilots were photographed in a vehicle in the dark, wearing winter coats.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dziadosz Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Alison Williams)

World Aerospace & Defense Syria

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