Al-Nusra Front kidnaps 2 Syrian media activists

Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate abducted two of the country’s most prominent media activists from a radio station in the northwestern Idlib province on Sunday, opposition officials tell AFP.

“Al-Nusra Front kidnapped at 0655 (0455 GMT) activists Hadi al-Abdallah and Raed Fares in the offices of Fresh FM where they work and live in Kafranbel,” says Soner Taleb, head of media at the Syrian National Coalition.

Fares, Fresh FM’s director, has previously been detained by Al-Nusra fighters, who disapprove of what they term the station’s “secular tendency and support of apostates,” Taleb says.

According to a statement published by Fresh FM, Al-Nusra fighters stormed the radio station and confiscated its broadcasting and technical equipment as well as its electricity generators.

“The Al-Nusra members then gathered all of the revolution flags and burned them in front of everyone,” the statement says.

— AFP