Two Kidnapped Syrian Bishops Freed

A church official said two bishops who were abducted by gunmen while traveling in northern Syria have been released.

Greek Orthodox Bishop Tony Yazigi says the kidnapped priests, Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church, were released Tuesday and have arrived safely in the city of Aleppo.

Yazigi said the two bishops were abducted late Monday from the village of Kfar Dael, and their driver was killed by the gunmen. It was not immediately clear who kidnapped the men.

Syrian state media reported that the two bishops were seized by rebels while they were on a humanitarian mission and their driver was killed. But the opposition accused the regime of being behind the abduction, which was condemned by Pope Francis and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Greek government had earlier called for the release of two Syrian bishops who were seized by “a terrorist group” in the village of Kfar Dael as they were “carrying out humanitarian work”, Syria’s official new agency Sana said.

In Athens, the foreign ministry set up a crisis management team to work for the clerics’ release.

Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, in Brussels for a Nato meeting, expressed the support of the Greek government to the patriarch of Antioch, John X, who heads the Greek Orthodox church in Syria.

“We’re going to talk about this [the kidnapping] – and not only about this dramatic development. The international community should work together in order to put an end to the drama of the Syrian people,” Avramopoulos said.

Christians account for about five percent of Syria’s population, and they have remained largely neutral or supportive of the regime, however, the Syrian opposition also includes prominent Christian members, including George Sabra, a long-time dissident who was named interim head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition on Monday.

(With information from AP, AFP,)