BEKAA, Lebanon: Members from a Lebanese family are holding 13 Syrian men hostage in an attempt to swap them for two fellow citizens kidnapped by the Syrian opposition, Lebanese security sources said Friday.

The sources said Khodr Jaafar and Abdullah al-Zein – both Lebanese – were kidnapped Thursday in the Syrian town of Zeita, 15 kilometers north of the Bekaa town of Hermel in east Lebanon by Syrian opposition members who belong to an Arab tribe.

Jaafar had been visiting Zein, who resides in Zeita, when the abduction took place.

Hours later and in response to the kidnapping, relatives of Jaafar abducted 13 Syrian men from Hermel and Zeita in an attempt to swap them for Khodr and Zein, the sources said.

They said the majority of the Syrian hostages were workers employed in Hermel.

Zeita is a small border town of mainly Lebanese inhabitants that lies inside Syrian territory.

Security sources said the two Lebanese were kidnapped after the Syrian opposition accused them of facilitating the arrest of a fellow rebel by Syrian security forces.