Lebanon arrests 3 over kidnap of Turkish pilots

Lebanese authorities have arrested three people in connection to the kidnapping of two Turkish pilots, officials said on Saturday. Mohammed Ahmed Saleh, a relative of the kidnapped Abbas ?Saleh, was arrested on Sunday, although caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said he was being questioned as a witness rather than not a participant in the kidnapping. A further two men, Hassan Saleh and Nadim ?Zugheib, have been charged with hiding information or participating in the kidnap.? On August 9, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Turkish Airlines crew from Beirut's international airport to a hotel in the city, and snatched the pilot and co-pilot. A previously unknown group calling itself Zuwwar Imam al-Rida claimed the abduction, and demanded that Turkey use its influence with Syrian rebels it backs to secure the release of nine Lebanese Shiites kidnapped in Syria in May 2012. The pilots were seized just outside the airport, in an area controlled by the powerful Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has denied any involvement in the kidnapping. Relatives of the pilots protested in front of the Internal Security Forces building in Ashrafeyeh in the capital on Saturday against the “arbitrary” arrest of their relatives. A spokesman of the families two kidnapped men, Daniel Shoaib, said that the movement is in ?protest against “the arbitrary arrests by the Information Division against our family using false allegations, saying that the families of the kidnapped persons are behind the ?kidnap of the two Turkish pilots.”? Additional source: AFP