Update to this story
Via IAfrica:
Syrian rebels want to use nuns “kidnapped” from their Maalula convent north of Damascus as “human shields,” pro-regime daily Al-Watan said on Wednesday.
Rebels took a dozen Syrian and Lebanese nuns from Maalula to a nearby area under rebel control after capturing the historic Christian town late on Monday, but it was not immediately clear whether the nuns had been kidnapped or moved for their own safety.
“Syrian army forces have started arriving in the Maalula area to restore security, after hundreds of rebels sowed chaos in the city, which they entered through the mountains, and kidnapped 12 Syrian and Lebanese nuns to take them to Yabrud,” a rebel town northeast of Maalula, said Al-Watan.
“The terrorists want to use them as human shields,” it added.
Yabrud is the loyalist army’s next target in Qalamoun, a mountainous region north of Damascus that is strategic because of its proximity to smuggling routes across the Lebanese border and a key road linking the capital to central Homs province.