A Franciscan priest kidnapped in northern Syria has been released by his allegedly jihadist captors.
Fr Dhiya Aziz, who comes from Mosul in northern Iraq, and is a parish priest in Yacoubieh in Idlib Province, went missing last Saturday.
The Custody of the Holy Land, the Franciscan body that looks after sacred Catholic sites in the Middle East, said on its website that he was apparently "treated well."
The organisation reported that the group that was believed to have kidnapped him, the al-Qa’eda linked Jabhat al-Nusra, denied any involvement in his abduction and claimed to have led the investigation that led to his release.
Many inhabitants of the Christian-majority village of Yacoubieh have already fled or were abducted two years ago.
The Franciscan Custody said that although Yacoubieh had become particularly dangerous in recent years since it fell under the control of Jahbat al-Nusra, Fr Aziz had volunteered to serve there.
Last October, Jabhat al-Nusra abducted another Franciscan, Fr Hanna Jallouf, priest in the nearby village of Knayeh, along with several parishioners, but all of them were released within days.
Other priests and bishops are still missing, including Bishops Boulos Yazigi and Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, both of Aleppo, and Frs Paolo Dall’Oglio and Jacques Mourad.
In June 2013, another Franciscan from Idlib, Fr François Murad, was abducted and killed. In 2014, a 75-year-old Dutch Jesuit who served in Syria for more than 40 years, Fr Frans van der Lugt, was shot dead in Homs.
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