Local sources in the town of Maaloula, in the Damascus countryside, said terrorists broke into the St Thecla Convent and held Mother Superior Pelagia Sayyaf and a number of nuns hostage.
The sources said that the terrorists also committed acts of vandalism in the town's neighborhoods and around the convent, attacking locals and targeting them with sniper fire.
Head of the Higher Committee for Relief, Social Affairs Minister Kinda al-Shammat, voiced concern over the incident, saying she held the terrorist groups and the countries that fund and arm them responsible for the lives of the Mother Superior and the nuns they are holding.
Shammat called on the international community and organizations to pressure the countries supporting terrorists to release the hostages along with all abductees held by terrorists in Syria.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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