Released Iranian Pilgrims In Syria Depart For Tehran

Ankara, May 13, IRNA – Two released Iranian pilgrims, who had been kidnapped by the Syrian opposition armed group, departed Istanbul for Tehran on Saturday evening. Shah Morad Najafi Taleb and Mohammad Sarhang Fallah were handed over to the Iran General Consulate in Istanbul and then departed for Tehran. An armed group in northern Syria kidnapped 22 Iranian pilgrims in January and February 2012. Eleven of them were released in March and were handed over to Iranian officials. Another seven pilgrims who were released later, returned home through Turkey. Currently, seven Iranian kidnapped engineers are in the hands of the Syrian opposition. The engineers were working in a power plant in Syria where they were kidnapped last December./end