Syrians held hostage after Lebanese kidnapped

Members from a Lebanese family are holding 13 Syrian men hostage in an attempt to swap them for two fellow citizens kidnapped by the Syrian opposition, Lebanese security sources said Friday. The sources said Khodr Jaafar and Abdullah al-Zein – both Lebanese – were kidnapped Thursday in the Syrian town of Zeita, 15km north of the Bekaa town of Hermel in east Lebanon by Syrian opposition members who belong to an Arab  tribe. Jaafar had been visiting Zein, who resides in Zeita, when the abduction took place. Hours later and in response to the kidnapping, relatives of Jaafar abducted 13 Syrian men from Zeita in an attempt to swap them for Khodr and Zein, the sources said. Zeita is a small border town of Lebanese and Syrian inhabitants that lies inside Syrian territory. Security sources said the two Lebanese were kidnapped after the Syrian opposition accused them of facilitating the arrest of a fellow rebel by Syrian security forces.