But two rebel announcements gave conflicting explanations of what would prompt the executions.
The executions were supposed to start Saturday, but on Saturday the rebels said they were postponoing any action for 24 hours. And as of the Iran Times press deadline Tuesday night there had been no announcements of any executions.
In a video link interview last Friday with Agence France Presse, Abul Wafa, commander of the rebels’ Revolutionary Military Council in Damascus province, said, “We gave the regime 48 hours starting yesterday [last Thursday] to withdraw completely from the Eastern Ghuta area [of Damascus].” Lacking a withdrawal by Saturday, October 6, Abul Wafa said the executions would begin. Government troops have not withdrawn.
But also on Thursday, the rebels posted a video on the Internet that showed a few dozen hostages in civilian clothes and contained a different execution threat.
An unidentified rebel said, “We opened the door of negotiations for the release of the Iranian prisoners, in return for the release of our prisoners from the Syrian regime’s prisons. These negotiations failed because of the inaction of the Iranian and Syrian regimes.”
Once the rebels’ ultimatum expires Saturday, “We will execute one Iranian prisoner for every martyr that falls,” he threatened.
Tehran did not react for two days. On Saturday, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement that simply said: “The hostage takers of the Iranian pilgrims in Syria as well as those supporting them are responsible for their lives.” It called on unnamed “international organizations” to do “everything to obtain the immediate release of all the pilgrims.”
Qatar was the one nation to speak out and publicly urge the rebels—who are armed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia—not to kill any of their hostages.
On August 5, the rebels posted a video of 48 Iranians kidnapped in Damascus, charging they were members of the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard).
The next day, a rebel group that claimed responsibility for the kidnapping said three of the men had been killed in shelling by government troops. The Islamic Republic has insisted none of the 48 hostages were killed, though it has never explained how it could know that.
Al-Baraa Brigade, which has since joined the Revolutionary Military Council of the rebel Free Syrian Army, announced on its Facebook page at the time that it would “execute the prisoners who were proven members of the Pasdaran if the shelling continues.” The shelling has continued and no such executions have been announced.
Tehran has appealed for help to secure the release of the hostages it says were on a bus visiting the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, a Shiite pilgrimage site on the southeastern outskirts of Damascus.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi has since said that “retired” members of the Pasdaran and army are among the hostages, but he denied there were any active duty military men or that they were in Syria on a military mission.
Pilgrims visiting the shrine usually go to Syria in family groups with women and children along. But the rebels said the bus they stopped only held Iranian men.
Dozens of civilians have been killed and arbitrarily arrested during army shelling and clashes in Damascus province in recent days, monitors and activists say.
Human rights monitors have accused both the regime and rebels of committing war crimes, including extra-judicial executions.