Al-Nusra Front release priest, 20 Christians taken captive in Syria this week

A priest and 20 other Christians kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria this week were released Thursday, the Franciscan order said.

"Father Hanna Jallouf has been released this morning... He is under house arrest at the convent of Qunyeh," the order said, without providing further details.

A Franciscan spokeswoman later confirmed to AFP that the other captives were also released.

Rebels linked to Al-Nusra Front -- Al-Qaeda's Syria branch -- abducted Jallouf and the others Sunday in the northwestern village of Qunyeh, near the Turkish border, the order said.

A local activist said Al-Nusra had been trying to take over some of the Franciscan properties in Qunyeh, prompting Jallouf to complain to an Islamic religious court last week. 

The Franciscans, a Roman Catholic religious order that has operated in the country for more than eight centuries, have 19 people working there. They have been working in Qunyeh for 125 years, the activist said.

Still missing in Syria are two senior Aleppo clerics --Archbishop Gregorius Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church, kidnapped in April 2013, and Italian Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, taken by rebels three months later.

AFP