President Al-Assad Receives 34 Liberated Abductees Previously Held by Terrorist Groups in Barzeh
DAMASCUS, (ST)- President Bashar Al-Assad and the First Lady, Mrs. Asma Al-Assad, on Thursday received 34 liberated abductees, including two women, who were previously held by the terrorist groups in Barzeh neighborhood in Damascus.
The president and his wife congratulated the liberated abductees on the end of the ordeal through which they, along with their families, passed during the abduction period .
President Al-Assad said that the Syrian society is experiencing a serious social crisis caused by the issue of the missing and the abducted persons.
“This issue was a basic obsession for us as a state, institutions and officials,” added President Al-Assad, pointing out that rarely a week or a month passes without conducting a swap to liberate one or a group of abductees held by terrorists.
In fact, it wasn’t only the Syrian state’s efforts which led to the release of abductees, but also the sacrifices of the Syrian Arab army in defense of the homeland’s unity, independence and sovereignty, the President clarified.
He went on to say that “such ordeals make one stronger and patriotic enough to realize what safe homeland means. And all the terrorist groups’ attempts, which keep committing crimes of killing and kidnapping, to affect your convictions. through practicing the ugliest forms of torture, have failed to weaken your patriotism.”
“The battle is not over, as there are still thousands of Syrians who are passing through the same ordeal,” added President Al-Assad, stressing that happiness won’t be complete until all abductees are liberated and security is restored countrywide.
On their part, the liberated abductees affirmed that they were confident that the state would liberate them, stressing their strong determination to return to their normal life and be effective as to contribute to the restoration of security, stability and prosperity to Syria.
They said that the kidnappers failed to strip them of their humanity or force them to behave in the same way, noting the hatred in which the terrorists dealt with them during abduction.
34 abducted persons, who were held by terrorists in Barzeh, released
The Syrian news Agency SANA reported that a military source affirmed on Thursday that a number of abducted citizens, who were held by Takfiri terrorist groups in Barzeh region in Damascus, were released.
“34 kidnapped citizens, among them two women, who were detained by terrorist groups have been released,” the source said, adding that the duration of the abduction ranged between 6 months to 3 years.
It affirmed that initial medical tests proved the safety of the released; pointing out that they were subjected to body hurts due to the torture they have suffered from by terrorist groups.
The phases of settlement in Barzeh were completed on Tuesday as the last batch of gunmen and some of their family members left the region.
‘ Though of the suffering caused to you-by the terrorist kidnappers-, we want you to return to your normal life with your families in your villages and countries. We want you to be, and you are, the example for steadfastness, nationalism and defiance,” said H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad, on February 9, 2017, to a group of Syrian families’ members recently liberated from the foreign backed terrorists.
‘Not a single day passed without questions from the people asking about you, without the State, in all of its institutions, searching for you; the aim for every soldier and for every martyr was to secure your return,’ added President Assad to tens of women and children who were kidnapped by terrorist groups at Lattakia Countryside fore more than a half and three years.
‘We have been and are ever by you and would never let you down and let bygones be so; we do believe in God and in Syria, the Syrians and the citizens who keep you steadfast and do make us standing altogether shoulder to shoulder during the crisis you have gone through,” outlined H.E. President Assad.
On her part, H.E. the First Lady Mrs. Asma Al-Assad, asserted that the strong will embodied by the released women and children during the years of being kidnapped should continue through the rebuilding of their life and working to compensate for their children what they lost of life and education, given the fact that many of them lived their first childhood years under the yoke of kidnappers.’
The released underlined that though of the inhumane conditions and the hard times during their kidnapping, their trust was firm in their State and Institutions, pledging their determination to stand again and overcome the hard years of being kidnapped.
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