Report: Samir Kassab in Syria's Riqqa as Abductors Remain Anonymous

Lebanese Sky News Arabia cameraman Samir Kassab, who has gone missing in Syria in October last year, is reported to be held captive in the northern province of al-Riqqa, media reports said on Wednesday.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Kassab is held in Syria's al-Riqqa along with the Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia crew, who were abducted with the Lebanese cameraman, and several other journalists and French doctors.

The newspaper said that the kidnapped men were transferred to al-Riqqa from Aleppo after the area witnessed fierce clashes.

The Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia said in October it had lost contact with its crew on assignment in the north Syria province of Aleppo, where abductions have been on the rise.

“Kassab and the crew are in good health and alive and were transferred to al-Riqqa as it is a more secure area,” a source told the newspaper.

No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and the abductors haven't announced any specific demands since the abduction of Kassab and the crew.

However, an informed source told al-Joumhouria that “they are a hefty catch as the crew includes Europeans that might be used for blackmail.”

The source also noted that “they could be used as human shields as neither the opposition nor the regime troops would dare to bombard the area of their captivity.”

Contacts were lost with Kassab, his Mauritanian colleague Ishak Moctar and their Syrian driver, who wasn't named at his family's request, as they arrived in the Syrian region of Aleppo in October 2013 to conduct a field report on the humanitarian aspect of the Syrians' plight during Eid al-Adha.

On Monday, Syrian militants released a group of Greek Orthodox nuns in exchange for dozens of women held in government prisons — a rare deal between Damascus and al-Qaida-linked rebels that was mediated by Qatari and Lebanese officials.