The bodies of five Syrian Christians discovered in the outskirts of the Lebanese border town of Arsal were handed over Tuesday (April 25th) to Damascus, Lebanon's Naharnet reported.
"Under the supervision of the relevant judicial authorities and in co-ordination with the Lebanese Red Cross, the General Directorate of General Security (GDGS) handed over this morning the bodies of five Syrian citizens to Syrian authorities at the Jdeidet Yabous border post," a GDGS statement said.
The five bodies, which all have been identified, were found by a General Security patrol in December 2016 inside a cave in the outskirts of Arsal.
"It turned out that the bodies belong to Syrian citizens from the town of Maalula who were abducted during the battles that the region witnessed before being liquidated at the hands of one of the terrorist groups," the GDGS statement said.
The statement noted that the 2016 patrol had been conducted as part of the General Security's efforts to secure the release of Lebanese troops and policemen held hostage by extremist groups.
"Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) and al-Nusra Front (ANF) fighters are entrenched in the rugged terrain along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
