Syrian Rebels Kidnap Seven Red Cross Workers in Idlib

Team Was Trying to Return to Damascus After Aid Mission

A group of seven Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent workers were kidnapped today just outside of the northern town of Saraqeb by an as-yet-unidentified rebel faction.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said the workers were captured at 11:30 am when gunmen attacked their convoy, which was returning them to Damascus after three days of aid work in Idlib Province.

Elsewhere in Syria, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) destroyed a Sufi shrine just east of Deir Azzor, the second shrine in the area to be destroyed in a little over a month.

A pair of rebel car bombs also detonated in Umayyad Square in Damascus, damaging the building in which Syria’s state media organization SANA was located. There was no report of any casualties, and no group has yet claimed credit for the blasts, though Jabhat al-Nusra has regularly targeted state media in the past.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.