Two Kidnapped Youths Found Slain, Tension High
The dead bodies of two youths kidnapped four days ago were found at the Jadra district south of Beirut Thursday, security sources said. The sources said the two were found around 200 meters off the main highway linking Beirut with south Lebanon. One security source said preliminary tests indicate Ziad Ghandour and Ziad Qabalan were killed “a few hours after they were kidnapped.” Local television and radio stations blared the news about finding bodies of the two, which sparked fears across Beirut and its environs of possible reprisals by their relatives and Walid Jumblat’s Progressive Socialist Party with which they were affiliated. However, Jumblat, in a statement broadcast live by TV stations, called for maximum restraint, stressing that only state authorities should handle the issue. The crime was denounced and condemned by the various factions in Lebanon, especially that it involved the kidnapping of 12-year-old Ghandour. Shortly after the bodies of the two were found, streets were deserted in most of Beirut as residents sought refuge to avoid possible violence. |
| Beirut, 26 Apr 07 |
