A group of nuns kidnapped by rebels in the Syrian town of Maalula in December were released early Monday thanks to Lebanese-Qatari mediation and handed to the Syrian authorities, an AFP journalist said.
A monitoring group said the release was secured in exchange for some 150 women prisoners who were being held in Syria's regime jails.
The 13 nuns and three maids were kidnapped from the famed Christian hamlet of Maalula and taken to the nearby Syrian rebel town of Yabrud, where they were held by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
They arrived at Jdeidet Yabus on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon after an arduous nine-hour journey that took them from Yabrud into Lebanon, and then back into Syria.
The AFP journalist at Jdeidet Yabus said the nuns appeared exhausted, and that two of them had to be carried out of the vehicle transporting them.
A group of nuns kidnapped by rebels in the Syrian town of Maalula in December were released early Monday thanks to Lebanese-Qatari mediation and handed to the Syrian authorities, an AFP journalist said.
A monitoring group said the release was secured in exchange for some 150 women prisoners who were being held in Syria’s regime jails.
The 13 nuns and three maids were kidnapped from the famed Christian hamlet of Maalula and taken to the nearby Syrian rebel town of Yabrud, where they were held by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
They arrived at Jdeidet Yabus on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon after an arduous nine-hour journey that took them from Yabrud into Lebanon, and then back into Syria.
The AFP journalist at Jdeidet Yabus said the nuns appeared exhausted, and that two of them had to be carried out of the vehicle transporting them.
