Lebanese abduct 13 Syrians to swap for kin

Lebanon’s northeastern border with Syria in the area of Masharih al-Qaa and border villages in the Hermel region are fast becoming the scene of a confrontation between Lebanese supporters and opponents of the regime in Syria. Members of a Lebanese clan are holding 13 Syrian men hostage in an attempt to swap them for two fellow citizens kidnapped by the Syrian opposition, Lebanese security sources said Friday. The sources said Khodr Jaafar and Abdullah Zein, both Lebanese, were kidnapped Thursday in the Syrian town of Zeita, 15 kilometers north of Hermel, by Syrian opposition members who belong to an Arab tribe. Jaafar had been visiting Zein, who resides in Zeita, when the abduction took place. Hours later and in response to the kidnapping, relatives of Jaafar abducted 13 Syrian men from Hermel and Zeita in an attempt to swap them for Khodr and Zein, the sources said. They said the majority of the Syrian hostages were workers employed in Hermel. Zeita is a small border town of mainly Lebanese inhabitants that lies inside Syrian territory. Security sources said the two Lebanese were kidnapped after the Syrian opposition accused them of facilitating the arrest of a fellow rebel by Syrian intelligence agents. The kidnappings were the latest in a series of incidents along the increasingly tense Lebanese-Syrian frontier which has seen Syrian troops crossing the border in pursuit of rebel soldiers since the popular uprising began in Syria in March last year. Border incursions by the Syrian army have led to the killing and wounding of several Lebanese citizens in recent months. A 70-year-old Lebanese woman identified as Halimah Krunbi was killed in the village of Joura in east Lebanon Wednesday by Syrian army gunfire from across the border. Last month, Lebanese television cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed by Syrian gunfire in the northern area of Wadi Khaled near the border with Syria. There are fears that if the confrontation escalates between the Syrian army on the one hand, and the rebel Free Syrian Army and other armed groups on the other, fighting may cross the border.