Speakers at a conference in Oxford last week gave strong indications
that the two Orthodox archbishops kidnapped near the Syrian city of
Aleppo on April 22 had been killed, reports The Tablet.A senior regional source said he thought Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi had been murdered on the day that they were kidnapped.
The pair were intercepted while on a humanitarian mission in Syria to negotiate the release of two abducted priests. Their driver, a deacon, was shot dead at the scene.
John Eibner, head of the Zurich-based religious rights agency Christian Solidarity International, told The Tablet: "With each day with no news and no hard information the likelihood of their survival diminishes."