Gunmen Kidnap Two Bishops in Syria

ICC Note: The Syriac Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Archbishops of Aleppo were kidnapped on Monday by armed rebels in the village of Kfar Dael while “carrying out humanitarian work”, Reuters reports. The bishops are the most senior church leaders abducted in the conflict which has now killed more than 70,000 people across Syria. Just last September, one of the bishops, Yohanna Ibrahim, told Reuters that Christians were becoming increasingly persecuted in the region. “In its modern history Aleppo has not seen such critical and painful times…Christians have been attacked and kidnapped in monstrous ways and their relatives have paid big sums for their release,” he told Reuters.
4/22/2013 Syria (Reuters) – Two prominent Syrian bishops, who had warned of the threat to religious tolerance and diversity from the two-year conflict in their country, were kidnapped on Monday by armed rebels in the northern province of Aleppo, state media said.
SANA news agency said the Syriac Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Archbishops of Aleppo, Yohanna Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi, were seized by “a terrorist group” in the village of Kfar Dael as they were “carrying out humanitarian work”.
A Syriac member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Abdulahad Steifo, said the men had been kidnapped on the road to Aleppo from the rebel-held Bab al Hawa crossing with Turkey.
Several prominent Muslim clerics have been killed in Syria’s uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, but the two bishops are the most senior church leaders caught up in the conflict which has killed more than 70,000 people across Syria.
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Last September Ibrahim said that hundreds of Christian families had fled Aleppo as rebels and soldiers battled for control of the country’s biggest city.
“In its modern history Aleppo has not seen such critical and painful times…Christians have been attacked and kidnapped in monstrous ways and their relatives have paid big sums for their release,” he told Reuters.
In the central city of Homs, which saw the heaviest bloodshed earlier this year, he said several churches and Christian centers had been damaged in the fighting.
“Until a few months ago the idea of escaping had not crossed the minds of the Christians, but after the danger worsened it has become the main topic of conversation.”
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