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Lebanon hands over bodies of 5 Syrians killed by IS to Syria

Xinhua, April 25, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Lebanese Red Cross transported Tuesday the bodies of five Syrians believed to be killed by Islamic State (IS) militants to hand them over to Syrian authorities, the General Security directorate said in a statement.

The five bodies were discovered in December last year by hunters on the outskirts of Arsal, near the Lebanese-Syrian border to the Masnaa border crossing.

The National News Agency said that the deceased were from the ancient Christian town of Maaloula in Syria.

The Lebanese General Security and Lebanese Red Cross coordinated the transfer operation form the state-owned Rafik Hariri University Hospital to the Masnaa border crossing to hand the bodies over to Syrian officials and clerics.

The five Syrians were identified as Atef Qaloumah, Ghassan Chneis, Chadi Thaalab, Jihad Thaalab and Daoud Milaneh.

Since the news broke, many speculations loomed over the identities of the men, with some media reports saying that they were the nine servicemen captured by IS in 2014 when the it overran Arsal with the al-Qaida linked al-Nusra front. Endit