IRAQ: Syrian Christian Hostages Free

Source: WorldWatch Monitor, October 13, 2014

The last of a group of 20 Syrian Christians kidnapped October 5 have been released as their pastor awaits trial before an Islamic court.

Rev. Hanna Jallouf, a Franciscan priest in the northeastern Syria town of Knayeh, was abducted with about 20 other Christians. The town, in Idlib province, is eight kilometers from the Turkish border, an area where al-Nusra Front and other rebel groups have been fighting the Syrian army for three years.

Citing Franciscan administrators in the region as well as “local sources,” the Vatican news agency Fides reported October 7 that Jallouf and “several men of the Christian village” had been abducted. Several children were reported to be among the abductees. Three Franciscan nuns who run a youth center and dispensary in the village were inside the St. Joseph Convent at the time of the kidnappings and escaped capture.

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» See also Kurdish School Children Released by Islamic Militants (AINA) and Boko Haram Frees 27 Hostages Says Cameroon Government (The Guardian).

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