The Orthodoxy Cognate PAGE Media Network is reporting that Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and Iskanderun, Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi and the Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo, Metropolitan Youhanna Ibrahm were kidnapped while traveling near Aleppo. From their news release:
Armed men have kidnapped the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and Iskanderun, Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi and the Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo, Metropolitan Youhanna Ibrahm near the city of Aleppo.
An-Nahar has learned that the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, which recieved news of the kidnapping of the two metropolitans this evening, will not issue any statement before tomorrow, pending their receiving complete and precise information about the kidnapping.
According to details relayed to an-Nahar by specific sources, Metropolitan Yazigi was on the Turkish side of his archdiocese, which extends from Aleppo to Antakya and Metropolitan Ibrahim and gone to accompany him. Along the road on their return to Aleppo, an armed group stopped them before they could arrive to the city, killing Ibrahim’s driver and kidnapping the two metropolitans. The Orthodox metropolitan’s office relates that the two metropolitans were not injured. Metropolitan Boulos Yaziji is the brother of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X Yazigi.
UPDATE 4-23-2013: The bishops have been released, apparently unharmed. From the BBC:
Two bishops who were abducted by gunmen in a rebel-held area of northern Syria have been released, a church official has said.
The senior clerics, Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, were kidnapped as they were travelling from the Turkish border back to the city of Aleppo.
It was not immediately clear who had kidnapped them.
They are the most senior Christian clerics caught up directly in the war.
And today we celebrate...