BEIRUT: One of four Syrians kidnapped in east Lebanon over the weekend was freed Sunday and says his abductors are demanding a ransom of $2 million for the release of his two brothers and an employee.Osama Abdel-Raouf, 50, told police he was released Sunday morning in Zahle, the district in which he and his brothers Hisham, 45, and Imad, 47, as well Khaled al-Hamadah, a 23-year-old employee, had been kidnapped Saturday.

He told police that he and the three others had been shot at while they were driving back to Syria in a four-wheel drive Mazda with a Syrian license plate, after having spent their evening at Casino du Liban. The four had entered Lebanon via the Masnaa border crossing Friday, and were headed back toward it.

Their vehicle was intercepted on the Taanayel main road, in Zahle, near the Arab highway bridge, which is currently under construction, by a group of armed men in a GMC Envoy.

The Syrians were then forced out of their vehicle after the men shot at their car, and were led to an unidentified location on the mountain road.

Two weeks ago, a Syrian man was kidnapped in Lebanon but was released five days later in return for a ransom estimated at $17,000 and some of his wife’s jewelry.

Last week, armed men intercepted a car and snatched a leading Lebanese businessman at gunpoint in Beirut’s southern suburb of Ghadir.

There have also been a series of apparent political kidnappings of Syrians in Lebanon over the past year. In February 2011, three Syrian brothers from the Jasem family disappeared after two of them went to pick up their brother, Jasem Merii Jasem, from a police station east of Beirut.