Kidnap of Lebanese pilgrims heightens Syria tensions

The Syrian conflict took a broader turn in the region on Tuesday after Syrian rebels reportedly kidnapped 13 Lebanese Shiite Muslims as they were headed home by bus from a pilgrimage in Iran.

The kidnappings prompted families of those abducted along with thousands of supporters to gather in the Lebanese capital's mainly Shiite southern suburbs to demand their release.

Tuesday's kidnapping came as protesters in Lebanon blocked roads in the northern Akkar region for a third day, a security official said, amid mounting tension.

The road closures were linked to the weekend killings of two clerics at an army checkpoint in Akkar, a mainly Sunni region whose inhabitants are hostile to the regime of Syria President Bashar al-Assad.

The killings ignited street battles in the capital Beirut on Monday that left two people dead and 18 wounded.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, which dominates the Lebanese government, went on television to urge restraint and said his party was doing its utmost to ensure the safe release of the men kidnapped.

"I call on everyone to show restraint," Nasrallah said in an address carried on the party's Al-Manar television. "It is not acceptable for anyone to block roads or carry out violent acts.

Nasrallah said contacts were underway with Syrian authorities and other countries in the region for a quick resolution.

He added that Hezbollah was also in contact with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose office said he was making the necessary contacts to ensure the release of the Lebanese abducted.

In Syria itself, security forces carried out a spate of raids in Damascus after a deadly bombing hit the capital and UN chief Ban Ki-Moon warned the search for peace was at a "pivotal moment."

State television said the late Monday blast hit a restaurant in the Qaboon neighbourhood of the capital, with the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying five people were killed.

In all, at least 59 people were killed nationwide on Monday, including 31 loyalist troops who died in clashes with rebel fighters, the Observatory said.

The bloodshed raged despite the deployment of a UN military observer mission to oversee a promised ceasefire that has been breached daily since it went into force on April 12.

Gunfire erupted as a team of UN observers visited the town of Busayra in Deir Ezzor province in the northeast, activists reached by Skype told AFP.

"Unconfirmed reports indicate there are two dead and several wounded," one activist said.

The Observatory also said there were also fierce clashes between regime forces and rebels in the town of Kfar Roma in Idlib province in the northwest, with four soldiers killed.

And it said regime helicopter gun ships reportedly opened fire in certain parts of Idlib, wounding an unknown number of people.

Demonstrations broke out at dawn in several neighbourhoods of Aleppo, the country's second city and commercial hub which until recently had been largely spared the unrest shaking the country since March 2011.

One person was killed by gunfire in Nouaymeh, a town in the southern province of Daraa, the Observatory said.

The UN chief issued a new warning on the dangers of all-out civil war as the 14-month uprising against Assad's regime has turned into an armed rebellion.

"The secretary general said we were at a pivotal moment in the search for a peaceful settlement to the crisis and that he remained extremely troubled about the risk of an all-out civil war," a spokesman said at a NATO summit in Chicago on Monday.

NATO states have come under criticism for backing the air war in Libya last year that helped insurgents defeat Moamer Kadhafi's forces but ruling out military intervention in Syria.

Also at the NATO summit, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said the international community was not doing enough to help resolve the crisis in his country's neighbour Syria.

"The international community as whole has so far performed poorly in providing an effective response to the crisis at hand," Gul said.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, called on the Lebanese authorities to launch an independent investigation into the killing of the two Sunni clerics on Sunday.

"It's vital the probe into these killings is carried out by an independent body," said Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ann Harrison.

A Lebanese judicial official said 21 soldiers, including three officers, were being questioned by military police in relation to the clerics' deaths.

In related developments, a Lebanese military judge ordered the release on bail of an Islamist whose arrest had been another source of friction between pro- and anti-Assad, a judicial official said.

Shadi al-Mawlawi's May 12 arrest on charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation sparked sectarian clashes in the northern port city of Tripoli that killed 10 people.

His supporters say he was targeted because he was helping Syrian refugees fleeing the unrest in their country, as the unrest in Lebanon highlighted deep divisions over Syria.

Lebanon was dominated by its larger neighbour for decades and the sectarian politics of the two countries have remained a source of tension.

The Lebanese opposition led by former premier Saad Hariri backs the revolt against Assad, while the ruling coalition, in which the powerful Hezbollah plays a key role, supports the Damascus regime.

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