Via Al Arabiya:

Sunni Islamist rebels in Syria have claimed responsibility for kidnapping at least 94 women and children belonging to President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect, according to a video published on Thursday.

The civilians were abducted in August from villages in rural Latakia, the president’s coastal stronghold. The rebels said they were holding the hostages to secure the release of opposition supporters from government detention.

Thousands of people are thought to be imprisoned by both sides in the increasingly sectarian civil war, which enters its fourth year this month.

The video, obtained by Qatari-owned television station Al Jazeera, said the rebels were ready to swap the civilians for 2,000 prisoners who have been detained for more than a year.

It stipulated that most of the freed prisoners be from coastal areas of the country and that half of them be women and children, Al Jazeera said.