Report: D.C.R.I Team Headed by Top General Ended Estonians’ Kidnap Ordeal
A French general specialized in anti-terror operations headed the team that won the release of the seven Estonian tourists in the Bekaa valley on Wednesday, Ad-Diyar daily reported.
The newspaper said that the general is a member of the French intelligence and expert in Lebanese affairs.
The team from the Direction Centrale du Renseignement Interieur (D.C.R.I) won the release of the Estonian cyclists in the Bekaa town of al-Taybeh, Ad-Diyar reported.
It added that the general had worked as an investigator into the assassination of the military attache at the French Embassy Col. Christian Gouttierre near the French mission's building in the Beirut suburb of Mar Taqla in 1986.
The Estonians, in their 30s and early 40s, were kidnapped at gunpoint on March 23 while on a cycling holiday near the eastern town of Zahle, after arriving from Syria.
The identity of the kidnappers remains unknown and the extent of the Lebanese authorities’ involvement in the release is also unclear. The media has said that top Lebanese officials weren’t aware of the operation and only knew about it the last minute.
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