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Missing Syrian nuns appear in video,
saying they are well
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[December 07, 2013]
BEIRUT (Reuters) — A group of nuns
who went missing in Syria after Islamist fighters captured a Christian
village this week have appeared in a video, saying they are in good
health and denying that they had been kidnapped.
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 The nuns were taken after militants seized the ancient quarter of
Maaloula, a Christian village north of Damascus, following heavy
fighting with President Bashar al-Assad's forces on Monday.
The fighters then moved the nuns from the Greek Orthodox monastery
of Mar Thecla to the nearby town of Yabrud, according to the
Vatican's envoy to Syria.
In the video broadcast by Al Jazeera late on Friday, more than a
dozen nuns wearing long black robes appeared sitting on couches
around a room.
Asked by a man behind the camera if they had been kidnapped, one
denied it and said they had only left the monastery to escape the
shelling, and that they would be released after two days.
"We are being treated well. They brought us from the convent, out
from under the shelling ... they rescued us, and we're very happy
with them," another nun said.
It was not clear when or where the video was filmed or under what
conditions the nuns were speaking.
On Friday, the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that a
rebel group calling itself "Free Qalamoun" had claimed the
kidnapping of the nuns and wanted to trade them for a thousand
female detainees held by the government.
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Syria's Christian minority has generally tried to keep on the
sidelines of the civil war, which pits mostly Sunni Muslim rebels
against Assad, who is from the minority Alawite sect, and his
foreign Shi'ite allies.
But many have been alarmed by the ascendance of hardline Islamists
among the rebels, including some factions linked to al Qaeda.
(Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz; editing by Kevin Liffey)
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