An Italian Jesuit priest who hoped to negotiate with armed
groups Syria has "apparently been kidnapped by an Islamist group" which
is "a local version of Al-Qaeda", the foreign ministry in Rome said.
"You will all understand the difficulties. We have not given up, we are still hopeful" of recovering activist Paolo Dall'Oglio, Italy's Foreign
Minister Emma Bonino told Unomattina television programme on Tuesday.
On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it feared Dall'Oglio had been taken prisoner by "jihadists" in Raqa, Syria's only provincial capital to have fallen out of regime control.
Dall'Oglio had reportedly gone to meet with commanders of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) to try to negotiate peace between Kurds and rebels and to plead for the release of activists kidnapped by the group.
ISIS is behind the kidnapping of several activists in Raqa. On Friday, the UK-based Observatory said activists who demonstrated outside the group's headquarters were told by ISIS that Dall'Oglio was their "guest".
Long based in Syria, Dall'Oglio is a fierce critic of President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its crackdown against dissent. On Monday, the Jesuits of the Middle East released a statement to expressing their "deep worry" about the fate of Jesuit priests in Syria.
[AFP]
"You will all understand the difficulties. We have not given up, we are still hopeful" of recovering activist Paolo Dall'Oglio, Italy's Foreign
Minister Emma Bonino told Unomattina television programme on Tuesday.
On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it feared Dall'Oglio had been taken prisoner by "jihadists" in Raqa, Syria's only provincial capital to have fallen out of regime control.
Dall'Oglio had reportedly gone to meet with commanders of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) to try to negotiate peace between Kurds and rebels and to plead for the release of activists kidnapped by the group.
ISIS is behind the kidnapping of several activists in Raqa. On Friday, the UK-based Observatory said activists who demonstrated outside the group's headquarters were told by ISIS that Dall'Oglio was their "guest".
Long based in Syria, Dall'Oglio is a fierce critic of President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its crackdown against dissent. On Monday, the Jesuits of the Middle East released a statement to expressing their "deep worry" about the fate of Jesuit priests in Syria.
[AFP]
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