Syria crisis: Nuns freed by rebels arrive in Damascus
Source: BBC
A group of Greek Orthodox nuns held for three months by rebels in Syria after being taken from their convent in Maaloula have arrived back in Damascus.
The nuns were brought to the Lebanese border town of Arsal early on Monday where they were handed over to Lebanese officials and then driven to Syria.
They said they were tired, but that they had been mostly well treated.
They were freed as part of a prisoner exchange involving some 150 women and children held by the Syrian government.
The deal was negotiated by officials from Qatar and Lebanon Branch.
The nuns and their attendants, exhausted but apparently well after their ordeal, were brought through a rebel border crossing to Arsal, a town the north-eastern Bekaa Valley, early on Monday.
It is believed they were held by the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist rebel group affiliated to al-Qaeda.
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