Syria update: Priest Kidnapped

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]

Al Qaeda group kidnaps Italian priest in Syria: activists

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN | Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:41pm EDT

(Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked fighters in a rebel-held eastern Syrian city on Monday abducted a prominent Italian Jesuit priest who championed the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.
Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant kidnapped father Paolo Dall'Oglio while he was walking in Raqqa, which fell to militant Islamist brigades in March, the sources in Raqqa province told Reuters.
Syrian authorities expelled Dall'Oglio from the country last year for helping victims of Assad's military crackdown while he served at a sixth-century monastery in the Anti-Lebanon mountains north of Damascus.
He has been an advocate of reconciliation for the country's myriad religious and ethnic sects, especially between Kurds and Arabs, as Syria slipped into civil war. Dall'Oglio blamed Assad for provoking sectarian mayhem and called his forces "thugs."
Abdelrazzaq Shlas, a leading opposition activist in Raqqa, said the Islamic State appeared to have been angered by comments Dall'Oglio had made criticizing violence against Kurdish residents of Tel al-Abiad, on the border with Turkey.
Fighting flared in the town and other areas to the northeast in recent weeks between Islamist militants and members of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) militia.
"Father Paolo was received in Raqqa with open arms but the Islamic State appears not to have taken well to his position regarding Tel al-Abiad," Shlas said.
Shlas pointed to crowds in Raqqa cheering Dall'Oglio during a street rally he attended on Sunday night in support of the besieged city of Homs. Video footage of the rally showed Dall'Oglio saluting the crowd.
A Western diplomat said Dall'Oglio crossed into Syria from Turkey last week, ignoring warnings from his friends not to go to Raqqa, where Islamist militants kidnapped several liberal activists in recent weeks.
"He insisted on going," the diplomat said.
Dall'Oglio served for three decades at the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, or Deir Mar Musa, before being expelled from the country in 2012. He was instrumental in restoring the monastery, whose cathedral houses an exquisite 11th century fresco of the Last Judgment.
In a statement from Raqqa published on Facebook before his disappearance, Dall'Oglio said he considered Syria to be his homeland.
"I feel happy because first I am in a liberated city and second because of the marvelous reception I have gotten. People walk the streets with freedom and in harmony. It is a picture of the homeland we want for all Syrians," Dall'Oglio said.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)(Reuters)

A Franco-American photographer has freed from captivity in Syria last week was kidnapped by a "Syrian militia"

A Franco-American photographer has freed from captivity in Syria last week was kidnapped by a "Syrian militia" and held for 81 days, his photo agency Polaris Images said.
Jonathan Alpeyrie, who arrived safely in Paris this week, was kidnapped on  April 29 in the town of Yabrud, 75km north of Damascus, the New-York based agency said.
"On July 20, after 81 days in captivity, Alpeyrie was released, driven to Lebanon, and he finally arrived in Paris this week" Polaris said.
All the photographer's equipment was taken from him by his kidnappers, the agency added.
Polaris did not specify whether Alpeyrie's kidnappers were a rebel contingent or one of Syria's feared groups of Shabiha, armed civilians loyal to Assad acting in parallel to the regular army.
French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot confirmed Alpeyrie's release on Friday but refused to give any information on where he was held, who had detained him and how he was freed.
Contacted by the AFP news agency, Alpeyrie himself refused to comment.
[AFP]

Ransom likely motive for reporter kidnapping in Syria: Polish PM

WARSAW | Fri Jul 26, 2013 12:06pm EDT
(Reuters) - Polish journalist Marcin Suder was probably taken hostage by a particularly radical and dangerous group of militants in Syria seeking ransom, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday.
Suder was abducted by Islamist militants in northwest Syria from an opposition media office in the rebel-held town of Saraqeb in Idlib province, activists from the area told Reuters on Wednesday.
"We have received initial information that it is quite likely that the motive for the kidnapping has the character of a robbery," Tusk said at a press conference.
"The information that we have received tells us that the group that decided to abduct the Pole is one of the most dangerous and radical," Tusk added.
Activists said on Wednesday that the militants also stole computers and money from the office, adding activist Manhal Barish was beaten by them in the raid.
Tusk said Poland would use all available means to free Suder as soon as possible.
"We have our options, means and friends who will be ready to help us," he said.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski discussed the issue with his Turkish counterpart on Thursday and the ministry said earlier it had set up a team of specialists based in Warsaw and its embassies in the Middle East to deal with the case.
Suder was alone in Syria on assignment for, among others, the Polish photo agency Studio Melon, the agency said.
Moderate and hardline Islamist opposition groups have clashed repeatedly during the more than two-year conflict that the United Nations says has cost nearly 100,000 lives.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says Syria is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, with at least 39 killed and 21 kidnapped in 2012 by both rebels and government forces. Most kidnapped journalists have been released but several remain missing.
(Reporting by Marcin Goettig; editing by Mike Collett-White)

Polish journalist kidnapped in Syria: activists

BEIRUT | Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:45am EDT

(Reuters) - A Polish journalist was taken hostage by Islamist militants in northwest Syria on Wednesday, opposition activists said.
Marcin Suder was abducted from an opposition media office in the town of Saraqeb in Idlib province, activists from the area told Reuters.
Suder was alone in Syria on assignment for, among others, the Polish photo agency Studio Melon, the agency confirmed.
Paulina Okonska, Suder's fiancée, who also works with Studio Melon, told Reuters she had exchanged emails with Suder on Tuesday but could not confirm he had been kidnapped.
Syrian opposition activist Manhal Barish was beaten in the raid on the office, which activists said was conducted by a group of armed Islamists.
Saraqeb is a rebel-held town. Moderate and hardline Islamist opposition groups have clashed during the two-year conflict that the United Nations says has cost nearly 100,000 lives.
The militants also stole computers and money from the office, the activists said, adding that they believed some of the attackers were foreigners.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says Syria is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, with at least 39 killed and 21 kidnapped in 2012 by both rebels and government forces. Most kidnapped journalists have been released but several remain missing.
(Reporting by Stephen Kalin in Beirut and Marcin Goettig in Warsaw; Editing by Alison Williams)

Hundreds of families were trapped

Hundreds of families were trapped on Sunday in a northeastern district of Damascus by regime troops who fought fierce battles with rebel forces, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
"There is a siege because regime snipers are posted on the outskirts of Qaboun and this makes any attempt to leave difficult," the monitoring group said.
"Violent clashes are underway between regime forces and rebels in Qaboun," in northeast Damascus where battles have raged for months as the army tries to
boot out rebel forces, the Britain-based Observatory said.
"The area has also been bombed by the army," added the watchdog, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers on the ground. [AFP]

Two French journalists kidnapped june are alive and Paris is working for their release.

Two French journalists kidnapped shortly after arriving in Syria in June are alive and Paris is working for their release, the defence minister said on Sunday.
Didier Francois, 53, a seasoned reporter in troublespots with Europe 1 radio, and 22-year-old photographer Edouard Elias were taken hostage after being stopped at a checkpoint on the road to Aleppo.
It was unclear who was holding them.
"Every effort is being made to ensure that the conditions for their release can be met very quickly," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told journalists.
"We know they are alive and we are stepping up our efforts," he said. "In the interests of everyone, especially those two, I cannot say any more."
According to Reporters Without Borders, 24 journalists have been killed and 23 imprisoned since the outbreak of Syria's civil strife in March 2011.
[AFP]