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Slideshow Best photos of the year 2012 Download our Wider Image iPad app Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read DNA pioneer James Watson takes aim at "cancer establishments" 6:34am EST India lashes Pakistan after deadly Kashmir encounter | 7:29am EST Guru's view on Indian rape raises anger, but shared by many 8:08am EST The Kraken wakes: first images of giant squid filmed in deep ocean | 08 Jan 2013 AIG may join bailout lawsuit against U.S. government 08 Jan 2013 Discussed 94 Obama says U.S. can’t afford more showdowns over debt, deficits 87 AIG may join bailout suit against U.S. government 41 Analysis: Obama shows combativeness entering second term but risks await Freed Iranians arrive in Damascus after prisoner swap Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Brahimi: Syrians believe 40 years of family rule is "too long" 10:49am EST Analysis & Opinion 2013′s top 10 political risks Images of December Related Topics World » Syria » Middle East Turmoil » Syria's snipers The frontlines of the sniper wars on the streets of Syria. Slideshow 1 of 10. Iranians released by Syrian rebels arrive at a hotel in Damascus January 9, 2013. Forty eight Iranians released by Syrian rebels in exchange for the release of more than 2,000 civilian prisoners held by the Syrian government arrived at the Sheraton hotel in central Damascus on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said. The men were accompanied by the Iranian ambassador to Syria and arrived in six small buses, looking tired but in good health. Credit: Reuters/Khaled al-Hariri By Marwan Makdesi and Ece Toksabay DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL | Wed Jan 9, 2013 10:49am EST DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Forty-eight Iranians freed by Syrian rebels in exchange for more than 2,000 civilian prisoners held by the Syrian government arrived in central Damascus on Wednesday, a Reuters witness reported. The Syrian government has not referred to the prisoner swap and the whereabouts of the civilian prisoners was not immediately known. Opposition groups accuse it of detaining tens of thousands of political prisoners during his 12 years in office and say those numbers have spiked sharply during the 21-month-old civil war. The Syrian rebel al-Baraa brigade seized the Iranians in early August and initially threatened to kill them, saying they were members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent to fight for President Bashar al-Assad. The Islamic Republic, one of his staunchest allies, denied this, saying they were Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims visiting shrines, and it asked Turkey and Qatar to use their connections with Syrian insurgents to help secure their release. The freed Iranians arrived at a Damascus hotel in six small buses, looking tired but in good health, each carrying a white flower, and they were welcomed by Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sheibani. They did not speak to reporters. Bulent Yildirim, head of the Turkish humanitarian aid agency IHH which helped broker the deal, told Reuters by telephone from Damascus shortly beforehand that the reciprocal release of 2,130 civilian prisoners - most of them Syrian but also including Turks and other foreign citizens - had begun. Syrian government forces have struck local deals with rebel groups to trade prisoners but the release announced on Wednesday was the first time non-Syrians were freed in an exchange. The Damascus government has periodically freed hundreds of prisoners during the conflict but always stressed such detainees "do not have blood on their hands." Given the number of political prisoners held during the course of Assad's rule, missing persons became a key issue when street protests against him first erupted in March 2011. Turkey is one of Assad's fiercest critics, a strong backer of his opponents and proponent of international intervention. It has denounced Iran's stance during the Syrian uprising, which has killed around 60,000 people according to a U.N. estimate. Turkey, Gulf Arab states, the United States and European allies support the mainly Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels, while Shi'ite Iran supports Assad, whose Alawite minority is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. A pro-government newspaper said on December 31 that Syrian forces arrested four Turkish fighter pilots who were trying to sneak into a military airport with an armed group in the northern province of Aleppo. The Damascus-based al-Watan newspaper said the arrests at the Koers military base, 24 km (15 miles) east of Aleppo city, proved "scandalous Turkish involvement" in Syria's crisis. TURKEY, QATAR INTERVENE The al-Baraa brigade, part of the umbrella rebel organization, the Free Syrian Army, said in October it would start killing the Iranians unless Assad freed Syrian opposition detainees and stopped shelling civilian areas. But Qatar, following a request from Iran, urged the rebels not to carry out the threat. Insurgents fighting to topple Assad accuse Iran of sending fighters from the Revolutionary Guards to help his forces crush the revolt, a charge the Islamic Republic denies. The rebels now control wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, most of its border crossings with Turkey and a crescent of suburbs around the capital Damascus. But Assad's government is still firmly entrenched in the capital and controls most of the densely populated southwest, the Mediterranean coast and the main north-south highway. The IHH has been involved in previous negotiations in recent months to release prisoners, including two Turkish journalists and Syrian citizens, held in Syria. The humanitarian group came to prominence in May 2010 when Israeli marines stormed its Mavi Marmara aid ship to enforce a naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists on board. (Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Marcus George in Dubai; Writing by Nick Tattersall) World Syria Middle East Turmoil Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. 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