The rebels are demanding that hundreds of imprisoned women activists be freed in exchange for the nuns, they said.

A spokesman for the rebel brigade al-Habib al-Moustafa said that so far government officials had refused the demand to release prisoners.

The negotiations were confirmed by a Syrian opposition activist who requested anonymity, as he was discussing talks conducted by other parties.

He said the rebels were also demanding the release of imprisoned Saudi Arabian nationals captured while fighting for the opposition.

The activist said negotiations began immediately after the nuns were seized from their convent of Mar Takla in the village of Maloula, north of Damascus on Dec. 6 when rebels overran the area. At least another three women were also seized from the convent's orphanage. They were taken to the nearby rebel-held town of Yabroud, activists say.

The seized women appeared on a video days after their capture saying they were alive and well.

Sources

AP/Huffington Post
Christian Today
Al Bawaba
Image: Daily Star/Al-Jazeera/Al Bawaba

The 12 nuns join two bishops and a priest who are already believed to be held by the rebels.

Speaking to a crowd gathered for his general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis invited "everyone to pray for the sisters of the Greek Orthodox monastery of Santa Takla in Maaloula, Syria, who were taken by force by armed men two days ago."

"Let us continue to pray and to work together for peace," he said.

His appeal came as fighting raged in several parts of Syria including the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels firing mortar rounds at government-held neighborhoods killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens more, said Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Sources

AP/Fox News
New York Daily News
Catholic Herald
Image: Reuters/New York Daily News

Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Vatican nuncio, said if the rocket had been launched just a half-hour later, he would have been saying morning prayers on the terrace near where the mortar struck.

"You can imagine what I would have encountered," he said.

He said he was just getting out of bed at 6:35 a.m. local time "when I heard a big bang and I immediately threw myself onto the floor, trying to stay away from the windows because we've already had the experience that sometimes it's not just one mortar, but two or three" that land in succession.

"It's not the first time that these rockets, this mortar fire, have fallen near the nunciature," he said.

The single strike Nov. 5 destroyed part of the roof, including the eaves of the building and part of the facade, the archbishop told the Rome-based AsiaNews agency.

If the strike had occurred later in the morning, after other employees had arrived at the nunciature, it could have provoked injuries because of the falling roof shingles and flying debris, he said.

Archbishop Zenari said they had no idea who launched the strike, but that it was "pretty powerful."

Sources

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Agency

AsiaNews

Image: Terrasanta

Reports quoting government media said a scenic mountain community known for being one of the few places in the world where residents still speak the ancient Middle Eastern language of Aramaic was attacked by the rebels.

The village is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites.

The chairman of the Maronite General Council also condemned the assault on Christians in Maloula located on the outskirts of Damascus.

Wadie el-Khazen said what happened in Maloula at the hands of Islamic extremists "is a brutal targeting to the most important Christian stronghold in Syria and the Middle East."

"Is it the fate of Christians in the Middle to be always the firewood of violence? This violence has long been condemned in all its forms by Pope Francis I, who called for the adoption of peaceful solutions to crises and conflicts?" Khazen said.

"We have seen a sample of the most dangerous form of threat to the principle of coexistence that prevailed in our communities for decades. In all of these decades, we have not known such brutal attacks on small groups without reason," he said.

Sources

The Globe and Mail

The Christian Post

Image: Reuters/The Globe and Mail