BEIRUT (AP)
-- Gunmen on Friday ambushed a van carrying a Turkish Airlines crew in
the Lebanese capital and kidnapped two of its members, a pilot and a
co-pilot, security officials said.
According
to the officials, six gunmen ambushed the vehicle on an old airport road
in Beirut, snatched the two men, both Turkish nationals, and let the
rest continue on.
The van was travelling
between the Rafik Hariri International Airport to a hotel in Beirut when
the ambush took place early on Friday, said the Lebanese officials,
speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Although
there was no claim of responsibility for the ambush or a demand for
ransom, the incident is likely related to the civil war in neighboring
Syria, which has deeply divided the Lebanese. Turkey-backed Syrian
rebels have been holding nine Lebanese Shiites hostage since last year.
The
Turkish crew had landed a Turkish Airlines plane with 144 passengers on
board, the Lebanese officials told The Associated Press. The flight
number 828 from Istanbul to Beirut landed at 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT), they
said.
Authorities were investigating and the
road where the kidnapping occurred has been closed off with several
police checkpoints, the officials added.
In
Turkey, Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu confirmed the
kidnapping and said the rest of the crew was still in Beirut but
expected to return to Turkey on Friday evening.
"We
don't know who did this and for what purpose," Gumrukcu said, adding
that the Turkish government was in close contact with Lebanese officials
over the case.
Turkey supports the Sunni
Muslim rebels fighting to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar
Assad, which is dominated by Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.
The
Lebanese are deeply divided over Syria's civil war, with Shiites
largely supporting the regime in Damascus and Sunnis backing the rebels.
Both Sunni militants, and fighters from Lebanon's dominant Shiite
Hezbollah group, have been fighting on opposite sides in the conflict.
The
conflict in Syria that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since it
erupted in March 2011. The fighting has frequently spilled into Lebanon.
---
Associated Press writer Desmond Butler in Istanbul contributed to this report.
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