Lebanon requests bodies of citizens killed fighting in Syria

Beirut: Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Monday requested that Damascus repatriate the bodies of the Lebanese nationals killed fighting alongside rebels in Syria, a diplomatic source told AFP.

The foreign minister communicated the request to Ali Abdul Karim Ali, Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, who promised he would deliver an answer on the matter by the following day.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najeeb Mikati meanwhile asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to aid in the return of the bodies.

On Friday, 22 young men, including a Palestinian, from the Lebanese city of Tripoli were killed in the Syrian border town of Tal Kalakh, according to a Lebanese official and an Islamist leader.

A Lebanese security source said the men “went to Syria to fight with the rebels and were all killed in an ambush in Homs province,” which borders Lebanon.

The source said 14 of the bodies had been delivered to a Syrian hospital by government troops.

The majority of people in the predominantly Sunni port city of Tripoli back the rebellion fought mainly by their co-religionists against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect of Shiite Islam.

Clashes erupt almost daily along the Syrian border, pitting Lebanese Shiite militiamen with close ties to Hezbollah against anti-Al Assad rebels, according to local residents and activists.