Qatari mediation secured the release of the Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria. The nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were abducted in Syria’s Azaz last year were freed Friday night after prolonged efforts to release them. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said that “Qatari mediation secured the release of the Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria.”
 

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim later told OTV that the abducted pilgrims will be released within hours and will “return home.” He also told Al-Manar television that the pilgrims “are in safe hands,” without however determining the exact date of their return to Lebanon. Meanwhile, caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that Ibrahim informed him that the kidnapped left Syria and are on their way to Turkey. Sources also told LBC that the General Security chief is waiting for the abducted pilgrims to cross the border towards Turkey.

In May 2012, eleven Lebanese pilgrims were abducted in Azaz in the Aleppo district while returning from a pilgrimage to Iran, two of which were released in following months. [Link]