(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The two pilgrims were the last of the 11 pilgrims who were kidnapped near the Syrian city of Hama by unidentified gunmen affiliated to the terrorist Syrian Free Army.
Ali Mahmoudi, one of the two pilgrims, says he has been harshly beaten by his captors who had covered his eyes and tied his hands and feet.
“They took me inside a cave. There was a cliff nearby and they dropped me down the cliff, breaking my hands and feet. They told us to insult Iranian officials, but despite the beating, we did not do that,” he added.
The Iranian pilgrim said the rebels accused them of being members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps who had gone to Syria to fight the opposition.
“I told them that I am an old man and no terrorist goes to war taking his family along,” said Gholam-Hossein Darvish, the second Iranian pilgrim.
“It was clear that we were pilgrims, but they took us and we suffered a lot of psychological pain. The things they told us, the place we were [kept] and the food we ate were all horrible,” he said.
The two Iranian pilgrims were released in Turkey’s border province of Hatay and were handed over to Islamic Republic officials on April 23. Sixteen Iranian pilgrims, who were kidnapped in Syria, had been earlier released in two separate phases.
Syria has been the scene of unrest since mid-March, 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government. 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.
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