NYTimes.com -- Iran advised its citizens on Wednesday to avoid bus trips into Syria, acknowledging that Iranians traveling and working in that country face an increasing risk of abduction.
The warning, reported by Iranian news agencies, came after Iran’s government confirmed reports that 11 Iranian citizens, whom it described as pilgrims, had been kidnapped last week while visiting Syria, Iran’s strategic ally. The armed forces of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, are engaged in an increasingly violent repression of an uprising that is nearly a year old. Anti-Assad activists in Syria have accused Iran of helping Mr. Assad try to crush their movement, which has been described by Mr. Assad as foreign-backed terrorism.
The travel warning was issued by Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria. Iran’s Mehr News Agency quoted the embassy as advising “Iranian citizens not to go on bus trips to Syria in view of the political situation in the Arab country.”
