Syria: Rebels offer to trade kidnapped nuns for women prisoners

Monastery of St Tecla

The Syrian government is negotiating with rebels to release 12 nuns seized earlier this month from their monastery north of Damascus, two activists said on Saturday. The rebels are demanding that hundreds of imprisoned women activists be freed in exchange for the nuns, they said.

Reports of local ceasefires and other short-term deals have become more common as Syria's three-year-old civil war drags on, but talks leading to prisoner exchanges still appear to be rare.

A spokesman for the rebel brigade al-Habib al-Moustafa said that so far government officials had refused the demand to release prisoners. The spokesman, who used the alias of Abu Nidal for security reasons, said a mediator was speaking to both parties. He said his group wasn't involved in negotiations, but was relaying information from other fighters.

The negotiations were also confirmed by a Syrian opposition activist who requested anonymity, as he was discussing talks conducted by other parties. He said the rebels were also demanding the release of imprisoned Saudi Arabian nationals captured while fighting for the opposition.

The activist said negotiations began immediately after the nuns were seized from the Monastery of Saint Tecla in the village of Maloula, north of Damascus on 6 December when rebels overran the area. At least another three women were also seized from the convent's orphanage. They were taken to the nearby rebel-held town of Yabroud, activists say.

The seized women appeared on a video days after their capture saying they were alive and well. The rebel faction that released the video did not identify itself. No faction has announced that it has control of the women. Syrian opposition activists and Church officials have said the al-Qaida linked group Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, is holding them.

The kidnapping of the women has strengthened fears among Syria's minority Christians that al-Qaida linked militants and other extremists, who are increasingly prominent in rebel ranks, are targeting them.

Source: UCAN