FSA, al-Meqdad release some captives

One of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims taken hostage by Syrian rebels has been released and arrived in Turkey, according to a video aired by Al-Jazeera news channel on Saturday. Hussein Ali Omar appeared in a video crossing the border into Turkey, and then speaking to the Doha-based channel praising his captors, insisting he and the others were "guests, not captives." "We thank the brothers, rebels of Syria, for their treatment... We have been guests, not captives," he said in the footage. "We call on the Lebanese people and the dormant Arab peoples, to stand up and support this oppressed people of Syria," he said. The captors said in a statement that Omar was released as a "goodwill gesture" in response to a request by a group of Lebanese Muslim clerics. The statement said that the fate of the remaining captives would be determined "after sending letters to countries neighbouring Syria." It did not elaborate. Sources told Arabstoday that the Director General of Public Security, Maj Gen Abbas Ibrahim this morning met the Turkish Ambassador in Lebanon, the spokesman of the kidnapped Sheikh Abbas Zugheib and Hassan Omar, son of the released Omar's son Ali told LBCI that he wished "all 11 of kidnapped were released.” Lebanese media had reported that four of the hostages were killed when a government warplane bombed the northern Syrian town of Aazaz earlier this month. In turn, a prominent member of the powerful Shiite al-Meqdad clan, Maher Meqdad, announced through "Voice of Lebanon" radio that the armed group had decided to release a number of kidnapped Syrians while four of them, allegedly agents of the rebel Free Syrian Army, will be kept in custody. He stressed that all hostages would be returned to their homes.