Aljazeera aired video of the Syrian nuns who disappeared earlier this week from the Christian nunnery in Maaloula.
The nuns say they were not kidnapped but did not disclose details on their location.
The nuns also appear worried.
La Prensa reported:
A dozen nuns from a convent in northern Syria appeared in a video aired Friday on Al Jazeera to say that they were not kidnapped during a rebel assault on the Christian community of Maaloula.
The sisters from the Santa Takla convent disappeared Monday after a rebel contingent that included jihadi elements overran the town north of Damascus.
“A group brought us here and protected us, and we’re very, very happy with them,” one of the nuns said on the video, explaining that they were forced to flee Maaloula because of the fighting.
Another of the women described their lodgings as a “very, very nice villa,” but she did not disclose the location of the residence.
Syrian authorities earlier accused “terrorist groups” – their usual term for the armed opposition – of invading the convent and kidnapping the nuns.
The spokesman for the opposition Military Council for greater Damascus, Musab al Khair, told Efe the nuns were moved in accord with the rebels promise to relocated residents of Maaloula.
But the Arabic international daily Al Sharq al Ausat published on Friday a statement from a rebel faction claiming to have kidnapped the nuns.
The group said it would free the sisters if the government agreed to release 1,000 opposition members from prison.
Syrian Islamists affiliated with Al-Qaeda demanded the release of 1,000 female prisoners in exchange for the release of 12 kidnapped nuns.
