Manama: A Kuwaiti citizen has been abducted in the Bekaa Valley, Kuwait’s ambassador to Lebanon has said.
Abdul Aal Al Guinaee told Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) that the Kuwaiti diplomatic mission was in contact with Lebanese security agencies over the kidnapping of the Kuwaiti national and working on freeing him as soon as possible.
Lebanese media reported that three unknown gunmen snatched the Kuwaiti national from his farm in the town of Qebb Elias in the Bekaa and taken him away at gunpoint.
Kuwaiti daily Al Jareeda named the Kuwaiti as Mohsen Barrak Al Ajmi and said that he was a colonel who headed the firefighters centre in Al Jahra, north of the capital Kuwait City, before he retired three years ago.
Al Jareeda added that Al Ajmi was married to a Lebanese woman and that the couple owned a house and a farm in Lebanon where they spent most of their time.
The kidnapping is the third of a Kuwaiti national in Lebanon in less than four years. Misfar Al Hajri was abducted in August 2014 in Bekaa and released in November, while Esam Al Hooty was kidnapped in August 2012 and released a few days later.
The Kuwaiti government has regularly warned its nationals to avoid traveling to Lebanon and called on those already in the Mediterranean country to take further precautions amid concerns about the security situation.
"Under the current critical circumstances, Kuwaiti nationals are advised to cancel any unnecessary plans to stay in Lebanon," the Kuwaiti embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut warned in August.
Security concerns were related mainly to the spillover from the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Al Ajmi is the second Kuwaiti to go missing abroad in the last five months. On August 5, contact was lost with Mohammad Al Baghli, a prominent businessman staying in Prahova, a south-central county of Romania.
Reports said that the 75-year-old went out for his routine jog, but never returned home, a palace residence he kept in the area for almost 20 years.
