Syria Demands Release of 2 Kidnap Victims

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s defense minister today accused the Shia Muslim group Hezbollah of kidnaping his son and American newsman Charles Glass, and Syria demanded the immediate release of both men.

Syrian officers contacted the leadership of Hezbollah, or Party of God, overnight and “firmly demanded the quick release” of Glass, 36, and Ali Osseiran, 40, sources said.

The Syrians stopped short of flatly blaming Hezbollah for the kidnapings, apparently seeking to avoid an open confrontation with the Shia militants and a rift with Iran, the sources said.

Indirect Accusation

But the demand by Syria, Lebanon’s main power broker, was seen as an indirect accusation that the militant Shia faction was involved in Wednesday’s kidnapings.

Osseiran’s 82-year-old father, Adel, a powerful Shia Muslim figure, told CBS in a televised interview conducted in English at his Beirut home: “Hezbollah is the party that has kidnaped them.”

Hezbollah has a base only yards from where Glass and the younger Osseiran were kidnaped in suburban West Beirut. The Syrians man a checkpoint about 350 yards away.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the abductions.