Lebanon has seen a wave of kidnappings, viewed largely as an attempt to drag the country into the ongoing unrest in neighbouring, Syria.

A Lebanese clan, al-Meqdad, has responded to a kidnapping of one of its members by the Syrian opposition party, the Free Syrian Army, by kidnapping at least 20 Syrians.

But, Ashraf al-Meqdad, a member of the al-Meqdad clan, and a supporter of the Syrian opposition, speaking to Al Jazeera from Australia, said that the kidnapping of the al-Meqdad family member by the FSA appears to have been part of a drug deal that went wrong.