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The kidnapping of the two Syrian Orthodox archbishops in Syria is an act of retaliation on the part of terrorist Chechen jihadists who are fighting with anti-Assad rebels over the killing of one of two Chechens responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings and the arrest of the other, by U.S. police forces, Turkish newspaper Sabah reported this morning. The two prelates, the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, Yohanna Ibrabhim and the Greek Orthodox bishop Boulos Yaziji were taken hostage on Monday, 30 kilometres from the Turkish border, as they were returning by car to Aleppo. Their driver was killed by the abductors. News was circulating yesterday about the possibility of their release, but the news was never confirmed.



Yesterday, Sana news agency, quoting sources within the Syrian Orthodox Church, reported that the two bishops were kidnapped by “Chechen terrorists belonging to Jabhat an Nusra,” the group that recently confirmed its links with Al Qaida. Jabhat an Nusra never stated it was targeting the Christian community or its leaders in any of its statements.



According to Sana news agency, the two bishops were kidnapped in Kfar Dael, a village east of Aleppo. Kfar Dael does not have a coordination committee of anti-regime activist groups, which would indicate that that particular area does not support the anti-regime revolt.



Yesterday, the leaders of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in exile stated that following a local inquiry, the prelates were kidnapped by someone close to the Assad regime. Bishop Ibrahim had recently quite clearly distanced himself from the Damascus regime.



On Tuesday 23 April, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Yohanna X Yazigi and the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, Mar Zakka I Iwas, issued a statement on the kidnapping. It is an appeal to the kidnappers to respect the lives of those abducted and to “abstain from any violence that serves no purpose other than to the enemies of our nation;” They called for the kidnappers to refrain from taking any action that “may lead to or favour a conflict denominational conflict between people who belong to the same nation.” The appeal was addressed to all “our fellow citizens, of all Muslim denominations, to work together to show that we refuse to see man as a product that can be bought or sold, a shield that is useful in war, or a political or financial commodity.”http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/siria-syria-siria-24309/