Two Canadian citizens have “safely left Syria,” after reportedly being held by an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Jolly Bimbachi and Sean Allen Moore left Syria Monday, according to Global Affairs Canada, but officials wouldn’t confirm if they were held hostage.
“The government of Canada provided assistance to the Canadians while they were in Syria and will continue to do so. Due to the provisions under the Privacy Act, further details on this case cannot be released,” officials said in an email.
Bimbachi told AFP she was fighting a custody battle for her two sons. Her husband reportedly took the boys to Lebanon in 2015 and never returned from the country. In November, Bimbachi travelled to Lebanon to reunite with her sons.
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Moore travelled there to help her. He was taken by her sad story and reached out because, according to friends, he had experience travelling in dangerous places like Iraq for humanitarian work.
On Dec. 31, 2017, they crossed into Syria with the two boys.
“I decided to take an illegal route and bring my kids through Syria into Turkey, and hopefully the Canadian embassy in Turkey will help us out,” Bimbachi said, as AFP reported.
“It didn’t work out quite as I planned,” she said Monday at Syria’s Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.
“They’re going to take us into Turkey, and in Turkey we are going to meet someone from the Canadian embassy.” Bimbachi didn’t explain where her sons are, but Global News has learned the boys are back in Lebanon with their father.
A high-ranking official who worked on the transfer said officials had been in talks for over 20 days and that no money had been exchanged for the transfer.
“For 20 days, we were communicating with the Turkish and Canadian governments to guarantee the safety of the two Canadians, and hand them over to the Canadian government via the Turks,” Bassam Sahyouni told AFP.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is an alliance of armed groups battling the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It’s led by a former al Qaeda affiliate once known as Jabhat al-Nusra, before it split from the terror group in 2016. The Canadian government still lists Al Nusra as a designated terrorist entity, but not Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
*With files from Nick Logan