Lebanese police rescue kidnapped Syrian girl, arrest gang

Lebanese army soldiers patrol a street in Labwe, at the entrance of the border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon on July 21, 2017. Ali Hashisho / Reuters

The Lebanese security forces rescued a seven-year-old Syrian girl, who had been kidnapped near her home in the Bar Elias town of the Bekaa Valley.

Three Syrian men and one woman — between the ages of 23 and 41 — suspected of taking the child were arrested, the police said in a statement on Saturday.

“At around 7.45am on February 22, unknown assailants in a silver Grand Cherokee kidnapped the girl, S K, from in front of her residence in Bar Elias before she was about to get on the school bus,” police said.

“The kidnappers than asked her parents for $250,000 (Dh918,000) ransom.”

Investigation found that one of the suspects — identified by his initials T T — was located in the nearby town of Taalbaya.

“The suspect admitted that he kidnapped the girl with the collaboration of three others,” said the statement. “He admitted that the girl was in a house in the Rashaya district.”

The police raided the house, where they found guns, masks and fake license plates.

“The girl was rescued, and the suspects have been transferred to the relevant prosecution,” added the statement.

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