BEIRUT: Syria has informed Lebanon of its willingness to hand over the bodies of Lebanese fighters who were recently killed in Syria, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.

The state-run agency said Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour was informed of the decision by Syria’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali.

Last week a group of Salafist fighters from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli were killed in an ambush by the Syrian Army in the town of Tal Kalakh, near the border with Lebanon.

There are conflicting reports about the exact number of dead.

Syrian state television broadcast Sunday images of more than five dead bodies with Lebanese identification documents, saying that the men were killed in Tal Kalakh after sneaking into the country from Lebanon’s Wadi Khaled, and that others in the group had been wounded.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to help retrieve the bodies of the slain Lebanese and obtain information about the fate of the others.

The NNA reported Wednesday that a meeting would be held to decide the necessary measures and mechanism for the hand-over of the bodies to taken place.