Teenager released after being kindapped in Baalbek

A teenager who was kidnapped in Baalbek on Wednesday night has been released by his captors, reported Voice of Lebanon radio. Ali Ahmed al-Mukh’s father told the radio that his son was released without ransom. The kidnappers had been demanding $200,000 for his release. Mukh, 16, was abducted by armed men on the Ain Bourday road in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon for ransom, the state-run National News Agency and Voice of Lebanon radio reported Thursday. NNA said Mukh was driving a BMW 325 at around 11:30 pm Wednesday when the gunmen riding a Jeep Cherokee blocked the road near al-Bashaer school and forced him out of the car. The unknown assailants kidnapped the teen and stole the vehicle, NNA said. According to his parents, the teen called them minutes before his abduction to inform them that he was being chased by the Cherokee. But they later lost contact with him, NNA added. VDL (93.3) said the abductors asked for a $200,000 ransom. On Sunday, another teenager was released by his captors after four days of captivity. Ziad Khaled Abou Esper, 16, was released on the road leading to the town of al-Jamaliya, north of Baalbek. The kidnappers had demanded a $150,000 ransom after seizing him from his father’s cow farm in the town of Adous. Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told VDL that the kidnappers of al-Mukh are the same people who abducted Abou Esper last week.