ANTAKYA, Turkey ? Rebel fighters said Sunday that 48 Iranians captured in the Syrian capital Damascus were affiliated with Iran?s elite Revolutionary Guard and not pilgrims as the Iranian government has claimed.
In a video broadcast by the Al-Arabiya TV network, a man identifying himself as a representative of the al-Baraa battalion of the Free Syrian Army identified the 48 as ?shabiha,? the word used to describe pro-government militias in Syria. He produced documents he said proved that one of the men was an officer in the Revolutionary Guards, and that he had a permit allowing him to carry arms.
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The Iranians were ?on a reconnaissance mission in the field to study the situation in the city,? when their bus was seized Saturday by rebels, the commander said. Several dozen men, apparently the captured Iranians, sat behind him as he spoke.
?We warn Iran and all those who stand with the regime: The fall of this regime is inevitable,? the rebel commander said. ?We pledge that the fate of all who work on your behalf in the land of Syria will either be imprisonment or death.?
If confirmed, the capture would seem to support long-standing rebel claims that Iranians have been helping the Syrian security forces with their crackdown against Syria?s 16-month-old uprising. U.S. officials have also accused Iran of providing materiel, intelligence and training to help crush the rebellion.
Iran?s state-owned news agency IRNA reported, however, that the Iranians were pilgrims on a visit to the Shiite shrine of Sayeda Zeinab when their bus was intercepted by rebels. On Sunday, the agency said Iran had asked Turkey and Qatar, which both wield influence over the rebel Free Syrian Army, to secure the release of the 48.
Earlier this year, Iran banned its citizens from making pilgrimages to shrines in Syria after the abduction of 22 pilgrims in two separate instances. Iran?s semi-official Fars news agency reported that the men had arranged a private tour. Ten other Iranians have been kidnapped since the uprising began and five remain in captivity.
This latest kidnapping, in an outlying neighborhood of Damascus that has long drawn Shiite tourists because of its holy shrine, pointed to the continued rebel presence in the capital even after the government claimed to have quelled an opposition offensive in the capital last month.
The kidnapping came amid a surge of fighting in Damascus and Aleppo on Saturday that left at least 145 people dead across the country, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, however, stayed out of public view, as he has done since a bombing in Damascus on July 18 that killed four top security officials.
The Syrian army hammered an area of the capital with artillery, mortar fire and helicopter rockets as rebels and soldiers battled near the presidential palace. Heavy fighting also continued unabated in the northern city of Aleppo, the country?s largest, which has become the scene of a raging urban war after remaining relatively quiet for much of Syria?s uprising.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=205353f581792e560a5ca2f150d07b90
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