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SYRIAN REBELS TODAY posted an online video of Iranians kidnapped in Damascus, charging they were elite Revolutionary Guards, and warning Tehran of further abductions over its support for Damascus.
Fighters of the Al-Baraa Brigade of the rebel Free Syrian Army have “captured 48 of the shabiha (militiamen) of Iran who were on a reconnaissance mission in Damascus,” said a man dressed in FSA officer’s uniform in the video posted on YouTube.
“During the investigation, we found that some of them were officers in the Revolutionary Guards,” he said, showing documents taken from one of the men, who appeared in the background.
In the footage, a group of men appeared sitting on the floor, while gunmen behind them carried the old Syrian flag that has been adopted by the rebels.
“We warn Iran that we will target all its installations in Syria… The fate of all Iranians working in Syria will be just like the fate of those, either prisoners, or dead,” the bearded officer said.
“God is great,” the gunmen chanted as he finished reading his statement.
(Video: AlArabiya/YouTube)
Al-Arabiya television aired an interview with a man it identified as Al-Baraa Brigade commander Abdel Nasser Shmeir.
“They are 48, in addition to an Afghani interpreter,” said the officer, who is the FSA chief in the east Damascus suburb of Ghouta, claiming that the captives were members of a 150-strong group sent by Iran for “reconnaissance on the ground.”
But a Syrian opposition source dismissed the videotape as a fake designed to cover-up the responsibility of hardline Sunni Islamist group Jundallah.
The source said that the faction – which has no relation with the Sunni rebel group of the same name active in southeastern Iran – was one of an array of Sunni Islamist factions that have proliferated in Syria in recent months.
The group also has no links with the mainstream FSA, the source said.
“Jundallah are an extremist Islamist group whose religious discourse is based on inciting hatred against Shiites and Alawites,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring also to the minority sect of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The video “was just a cover-up for the fact that this operation was carried out in order to target Iranian Shiites,” the source said.
“It makes no sense that the hostages would be members of the Revolutionary Guard”
The source also voiced scepticism about the suggestion that the kidnapped Iranians were Revolutionary Guards.
“It makes no sense that the hostages would be members of the Revolutionary Guard,” the source said. “If they were, why would they be travelling on a bus on the unsafe airport road?”
The source noted that Shiite pilgrims – from Iran and elsewhere – have continued to visit holy sites in Syria despite the mounting insecurity, because they believe in the sanctity of their journey, even if it involves serious risk.
The source also blamed Jundallah for recent killings of Alawite and Shiite civilians, as well as 15 Syrian troops, in Yalda, outside Damascus.
Iran has appealed to Qatar and Turkey – both governments with close relations with the Syrian opposition – for help in securing the release of the 48 hostages it says were visiting the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, a Shiite pilgrimage site in the southeastern suburbs of Damascus.
Tehran has repeatedly denied it has sent any military units to Syria.
Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday before the latest abduction was made public that “Iran has no armed forces in Syria and the Syrian government has not made such a request,” according to Iranian state television channel IRIB.
“Syria has a powerful military and also enjoys popular support. The Syrians can handle the adventures that foreigners have created in their country,” Vahidi said.
I hope the automatic weapons are better secured than the TVs!
Aren’t they lucky the boys weren’t there when they broke in!!
Surely by going public and disclosing what was taken the Burglars now about the garda involvement in the premises. I hope the gardai now vacate the premises. To use a phrase used in many a film ” position compromised”.
When my house was broken into recently I was told that there was a good chance if I went to balbriggan or fairy house markets I would find my belongings I suggest they do the same see how that goes for ya….
This premises is probably one of many locations the ERU have. No firearms or confidential documents would have been left there, even in a lock up, if it was not going to be supervised. This is just a typical bandwagon story that sells papers and gives people a chance to give out.
3 tv’s were takin and I would be confident in sayin very little if anything else was!!! BOTTOM LINE, it makes a good headline for the papers….
They robbers might get a surprise when they go to use the remote.
Why don’t they take the gardai off shatters door and put them minding premises like this. Get your priorities right Callinan!
They stolen all the toilet seats too.
Even now, they have nothing to go on.
i will give them a good price for an alarm on the gaff might even do it for cash
I really dont understand why the stores werent on a 24 hour guard like the army stores?
Sure if the burglars now know its the operational headquarters for the guards they will tell any other criminals they know where it is.point being u might as well appeal for witnesses as the cat is out of the bag anyways.no point in not moving if the criminal fraternity know where it is.
If it was used for admin purposes you would hope that no sensitive information was taken. Tv’s aren’t a big deal but confidential files getting into the wrong hands could have major consequences…I wouldn’t want to be on a witness protection program knowing that this can happen so easily
Confidential files can get into anybody’s hands given that Gardai are apparently using their own laptops as they wish.
you mean in here as well
@brian daly, ‘apparently’ they use their own laptops eh? Care to elaborate?
Witness protection Irish style.
Move back to the UK where you have fammily and come home again for weddings or social occasions.Like Steve Collins does in Limerick.
Witness protection anywhere else.
You and your fammily disapper for good under new passports,IDs ,names and backstopped aliases.
You DO NOT ever ,never go back to your old haunts,habits or make contact with your old way of life or friends or kin. Costs lots of money and resources.
So much for security. That place should have been well secured and monitored. Are they telling us that there was no CCTV? That place should have been like Fort Knox – easy to get into, impossible to get out of. No doubt someone is going to get their butt kicked over this.
Here in US giggling to myself reading this story. My US friends curious to know what’s it about. Too embarrassing to show them
Why is it embarrassing!? The article said it was a facility used by the specialist unit not its headquarters or operational base. It could be a firing range or self defence training area where the televisions were used for playback instruction or monitoring the process! As said before there were no firearms or sensitive documentation stored there and the location was most likely alarmed only with such low Garda numbers a response mightened have arrived in time to prevent the theft. This break-in is no different to any other break-in where its only the fact that the Gardai use it and don’t want attention drawn to it by giving out its location to the national media seeking assistance that makes it unusual! I doubt junkie burglars read the journal every day with their morning methadone so it’s not like they’d be back!
Not good to hear, but the Garda ERU have a number of secretive lock-ups around the country apparently. No firearms or weapons are stored in them, only at Garda Stations. The place will be forensically examined, so there’s a good chance these eejits will be caught!
If this is an april the 1st joke its in bad taste .Its not funny
And a day late..
If the public don’t know the location of the facility, the only way they can provide information is to have been one of the people who took part in a burglary between Sunday night and yesterday morning, where three flat-screen TVs were taken, somewhere within Ireland.
So in affect are the Gardaí asking the people who took part to hand themselves in?
Theyre not asking for the publics assistance
g why
Ah shur look, harmless auld craic in fairness.
slow news day was it journal.ie
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