Released Iranians to return home tomorrow
The group of five Iranians released after being kidnapped by armed terrorist in Syria in December is due to return to Iran tomorrow morning.
The Iranian Embassy in Ankara told Press TV’s correspondent that the five Iranians have been released at the Syria-Turkey border and are now in the southern Turkish city of Hatay.
The released abductees will be transferred to Istanbul tonight and will be handed over to the Iranian consulate in the city to arrange their return to Iran.
“The Iranians will leave Istanbul for Tehran at 23:30 local time (20:00 GMT) today and will arrive in Imam Khomeini International Airport tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 04:00 (Friday, 23:30 GMT),” the Iranian Embassy announced.
The names of the five Iranians are Darvish-Ali Fathipour Nosratabadi, Nouroddin Baharvand, Hassan Bazgir, Sohbatallah Hossein Pourmirza and Cheraghali Alipour.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem assured his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi on December 26 that Damascus would do its best to locate the kidnapped Iranians in the shortest possible time and return them to their families.
The five Iranians were kidnapped by unknown gunmen on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 in the restive Syrian city of Homs.
Syria has been the scene of unrest since mid-March, 2011.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.