The Greek-Catholic patriarch of Damascus has reported that all 240 Greek Melkite faithful who were kidnapped yesterday near the Syrian village of Rableh, have been released, reports Vatican Insider.
The town is situated between the Lebanese border and the city of Qusayr, in the Syrian province of Homs. The patriarch, Gregory III Laham, communicated the news to Vatican Radio.
The patriarch explained that the reasons for the kidnapping are not yet clear: “There is a large community of Greek-Catholic faithful in Rableh, they are the majority: there are Marronites and Alawis. The Alawis are the main sore point. There is a tendency to get Christians involved in order to make the problem a religious one and create a civil war between the various communities."