Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
's regime, on Wednesday denied abducting a group of Shiite Lebanese pilgrims inside Syria.
"The FSA is not at all responsible for the operation," Mustafa al-Sheikh, a high-ranking FSA officer, told AFP by telephone from Istanbul.
"This is an attempt to distort the image of the FSA. The FSA does not believe in this methodology," said Sheikh, the head of the group's military council.
Leb's state news agency on Tuesday reported that the FSA had kidnapped 13 pilgrims in Syria's northern Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
province.
Syrian state media too blamed the FSA for the abductions, which were feared to heighten sectarian tensions in Leb over the revolt in neighbouring Syria.
Sheikh said the Syrian regime "treats the FSA as a scapegoat. We condemn this abduction, which does not represent the values of the (Syrian) revolution."
The kidnapping "is no doubt the work of the regime, which wants to sow chaos in the region," Sheikh added.
Syria's main opposition coalition issued a statement Wednesday calling for the prompt release of the group, adding that it too believed the Syrian regime could be involved in the kidnapping.
The Syrian National Council "does not think it is impossible that the regime is involved in this operation," in order to sow "disorder" in neighbouring Leb, the group said.
The group was reportedly kidnapped as they headed home to Leb from a pilgrimage in Iran.
The news prompted their families and thousands of supporters to pour out into the streets of Beirut's mainly Shiite suburbs to demand their release.