A video released by the Farouq Battalion, part of the loosely organized rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), shows the seven Iranians, unshaven and wearing black shirts.
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video, but the men’s faces match those in pictures posted on Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency website.
Iran, a non-Arab Shi’ite Muslim power, is the closest regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
The deputy chief of the FSA, Malek al-Kurdi, said the Iranians were arrested in Homs and that five are military experts from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Rebels who spoke to Reuters via Skype said the two other men taken in a second abduction were civilians.
Iran’s Mehr news agency said all seven men were engineers working at a power plant in Homs.
Compiled from agency reports
Source Article from http://www.rferl.org/content/syria_iran_hostages/24465818.html
