OFFICIAL CORRECTION-UPDATE 2-Honduras detains Syrian, Pakistanis traveling illegally - police

(Police correct passport status of detained people in second
paragraph)
TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Honduran police arrested a
Syrian woman and two Pakistani men on Saturday after determining
they were traveling illegally and presumably en route to the
United States, authorities said.
The woman had a photocopy of a Syrian passport and the two
men described themselves as Pakistani but did not carry
passports, police commissioner Leonel Sauceda clarified to
Reuters. None entered through an official border crossing,
Sauceda said earlier.
"They entered at a blind spot," he said.
The three were detained on a public bus in the Central
American country's southern Choluteca state, at a highway
checkpoint after having entered Honduras from Nicaragua.
Another police official who declined to give his name
because he was not authorized to talk about the case said nearly
all migrants detained in the area are traveling en route to the
United States.
The Honduran police have identified the Syrian woman as
39-year-old Hanna Maissoun. The two Pakistanis are Muhammad
Shafiq, 30, and Nassem Abbas, 21, the police said.
It was not immediately clear how long they have been in the
region.
Earlier this week, Honduran authorities detained five Syrian
nationals traveling on doctored Greek passports.
The five men had been fleeing conflict in Syria and had been
trying to get to the United States when they were stopped, the
authorities said. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N13E15X
Honduran police said there were no signs of any links to the
Nov. 13 suicide bombings and shootings in Paris that killed 130
people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The five were part of a wider group of seven Syrian
nationals who acquired forged passports in Brazil and then went
by land to Argentina on their way north, a U.S. government
source familiar with the case said. The source also said there
was no evidence to suggest the men were militants.