Last week’s abduction was the fourth since December and brought the total number of hostages, briefly, to 29.
It wasn’t known if the 11 freed Monday were the same 11 abducted last week.
The Free Syrian Army said it was freeing the 11 on appeals from Turkey, which has been very helpful to the Free Syrian Army. The abductees were freed near the border and walked into Turkey.
It was noted that only 11 hostages were freed. Another 18 remain detained, so the political landscape remained unchanged. Some cynics even suggested the Free Syrian Army took the 11 men captive last week just to have something to give the Turks this week.
According to the Fars news agency, a group of armed men stopped a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in an area between the central city of Hama and the capital of Damascus, abducting 11 male passengers while releasing the remaining travelers, which included old men, women and two children.
The driver of the bus described the ordeal thusly:
“There were seven terrorists there and they attacked the bus [armed with] Kalashnikovs, colts and grenades. They seized every item belonging to the passengers, such as food, luxury objects, passports and even mobile phones,” he told Fars.
“The gunmen beat me and my assistant and inspected the bus afterwards. They transferred us to a location 15 kilometers away from the international road.” He said the armed men left the women and children abandoned on the bus.
In the first such hostage-seizure, five Iranian engineers were abducted from the restive city of Homs on December 21 by the Free Syrian Army, comprised of deserters who have left the Syrian military. A few days later, two Iranians trying to find the engineers were seized.
Then, on January 26, 11 male pilgrims were kidnapped from a bus near Aleppo.
In response to these four abductions, Iran has issued a travel warning telling its citizens not to use the land route across Syria for pilgrimages. They have been told only to fly to Syria.
The Free Syrian Army has alleged that some of the people it has captured are Iranian troops fighting in Syria, although Iran has asserted that all the abductees are civilians.
The Arabic daily Al-Hayat carried a report in which sources within the Free Syrian Army said its fighters had been battling Hezbollah-linked militants, alleging that the number of Iranian soldiers fighting among the ranks of Hezbollah units in Syria was increasing.
The report also said that among the Iranians detained by the Free Syrian Army were two men who had posed as Al Jazeera English journalists, interviewing and filming the group’s location. Shortly after the two left, the group’s positions came under heavy bombardment, according to the report.
The Islamic Republic is Syria’s only ally remaining in the Islamic world, and it has not wavered despite heavy international criticism.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi said last week, “Iran’s stance toward Syria is to support any reforms that benefit the people of this country and oppose the interference from America and its allies in Syrian domestic issues.”
Khamenehi also accused the United States of seeking to overthrow the Syrian government. And he criticized regional governments for supporting the American agenda.
“When one looks at the developments in that country,… America’s plans for Syria are evident and unfortunately some regional countries take part in America’s plans,” he said.
His remarks came as the Arab League asked the UN Security Council to call on President Bashir al-Assad to transfer power to a deputy.
The resolution failed when Russia and China vetoed it. All other members of the Security Council, including its three Muslim members—Pakistan, Azer-baijan and Morocco—voted for it. India and South Africa were among the others voting for the resolution.
China and Russia argued that it was not the job of the Security Council to call for a change of regime.
“Once you start, it is difficult to stop,” said Vitaly I. Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations. He added that this resolution meant that the Security Council would give itself the authority to soon demand “what king needs to resign, or what prime minister needs to step down.”
Although Moscow’s opposition is partly motivated by its close ties with Assad, some analysts believe it was primarily motivated by domestic political concerns.
“That the resolution calls for Assad to step aside is their worst example and fear. If today it is Assad, tomorrow Putin? They worry,” said George Lopez, a professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
The United Nations says the death toll in Syria has passed 5,400.