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Syria: Battles Rage In Aleppo'S Grand Mosque: Two Priests Missing

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  • Syria: Battles Rage In Aleppo'S Grand Mosque: Two Priests Missing

    SYRIA: BATTLES RAGE IN ALEPPO'S GRAND MOSQUE: TWO PRIESTS MISSING

    ANSAmed - Italy
    February 27, 2013 Wednesday 6:01 PM CET

    SYRIA: BATTLES RAGE IN ALEPPO'S GRAND MOSQUE

    Two priests missing. Damascus university under shelling

    BEIRUT

    (ANSAmed) Battles are underway in Aleppo's Grand Mosque between
    Syrian regime soldiers and rebels, ANSAmed was told on Wednesday
    by activists from the Aleppo Media Centre contacted via Skype. The
    mosque is a recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site and was attacked
    yesterday by rebel forces after being under government control for
    weeks. It was impossible to independently verify the information.

    In several non-professional video clips posted on the internet by
    sources with connections to Aleppo rebels, opposition forces say they
    intend to attack the Palace of Justice not far from the Grand Mosque.

    Meanwhile, two Syrian priests taken hostage by unidentified armed
    men in the Aleppo region are still missing, but efforts are underway
    to secure their release, ANSA was told by a source from Aleppo's
    Armenian archbishopric contacted via telephone. The source confirmed
    that nothing has been heard on the whereabouts of Father Michel
    Kayyal, an Armenian Catholic, and Maher Mahfuz, a Greek Orthodox,
    since February 9, when a bus they were traveling in was stopped by
    militants and the two were forced to get out.

    "We do not know who took them hostage nor in whose hands they are
    now," the source said. "But negotiations and contacts are underway
    to secure their release". Father Kayyal was an Aleppo resident while
    Father Mahfuz was from the Greek Orthodox St George convent in Hmeira,
    west of Homes in Wadi an Nasara ('The Valley of the Christians'). Two
    mortar shells hit the Faculty of Literature and Art of a university in
    the Syrian capital of Damascus, state-run TV said Wednesday without
    providing further details. The faculty is in the western part of the
    city's modern district.

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