The US allocates $ 5 million to find out the fate of five Christian clerics kidnapped in Syria
ARK News: The US State Department announced on Friday the allocation of $ 5 million for information about the whereabouts of five Christian clerics who were kidnapped in Syria six years ago.
The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information on ISIS kidnapping networks or the people responsible for kidnapping Christian clerics Maher Mahfouz, Michael Kayyal, Gregorios Ibrahim, Bolous Yazigi, and Paolo Dall’Oglio. These rewards are being offered at an important moment in our fight against ISIS. The kidnapping of religious leaders demonstrates ISIS’ ruthless tactics and approval of targeting innocent individuals.
On February 9, 2013, Greek Orthodox Priest Maher Mahfouz and Armenian Catholic Priest Michael Kayyal were on a public bus traveling to a monastery in Kafrun, Syria. Approximately 30 kilometers outside of Aleppo, suspected ISIS extremists stopped the vehicle, checked passengers’ documents, then removed the two priests from the bus. They have not been seen or heard from since.
On April 22, 2013, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Gregorios Ibrahim traveled from Aleppo, Syria to Turkey to pick up Greek Orthodox Archbishop Bolous Yazigi. When they reached a checkpoint near al-Mansoura, Syria, several armed men ambushed the archbishops and seized their vehicle. The clerics’ driver was later found dead. The archbishops are believed initially to have been kidnapped by persons aligned with Jabhat al-Nusra Front, an al-Qa’ida affiliated group; however, the archbishops were later transferred to Da’esh, also known as ISIS.
On July 29, 2013, ISIS abducted Italian Jesuit Priest Paolo Dall’Oglio in Raqqah. Father Dall’Oglio had planned to meet with ISIS to ask for the release of Fathers Mahfouz and Kayyal, and Archbishops Ibrahim and Yazigi. He has not been seen or heard from since.
The program has assigned numbers to communicate with, calling on all those who have information that may indicate the whereabouts of the five clerics to call these numbers, stressing to maintain the confidentiality of personal information of everyone who helps in this matter.
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