Two of the men arrested
Syrian rebels say arrested Iranian fighters
'Free Army' claims to have captured Iranian militants sent by Tehran to aid Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy movement
Syria's "Free Army" rebels claim to have proof that Iran is aiding President Bashar Assad's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, Ynet learned Friday.
The rebels have released a video depicting alleged members of the Revolutionary Guards, captured who were captured in the city of Homs.
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The video showed travel documents of seven captives, some of whom appeared to be speaking Farsi.
“I am Sajjad Amirian, a member the Revolutionary Guards of the Iranian armed forces. I am a member of the team in charge of cracking down on protesters in Syria and we receive our orders directly from the security division of the Syrian air force in Homs,” one of the captives said.
“I urge Mr. Khamenei to work on securing our release and return to our homes,” he added.
According to the Saudi website Al-Arabiya, the seven are being held by a Syrian rebel group, which called itself the "al-Farouq brigade of the Free Syrian Army."
The group also released a statement calling for Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamanei to "acknowledge in explicit and unambiguous words the existence of elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria in order to help the Assad’s regime in its crackdown on the Syrian people."
Khamanei must order the withdrawal of all Revolutionary Guard fighters from Syria in return for the Iranian fighters' release, they said.
Also on Friday, Iran's official IRNA news agency said gunmen in Syria kidnapped 11 Iranian pilgrims traveling by road from Turkey to Damascus.
AP contributed to this report
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