Italians Held in Syria Are on Their Way Home
Two Italian technicians who worked as subcontractors in Syria and went missing for a week in unclear circumstances are on their way back to Italy, the Italian Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
"I am finally sure that they are returning to Italy," Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said in a statement, following the release late on Friday of the two men, who had been working in Syria for Italian energy group Ansaldo.
"We expect them in Italy in the next few hours," he said, with "great relief, considering the serious risks to their safety in a country ravaged by the unacceptable violence of which many innocent civilians are victims."
It is not yet clear who kidnapped the pair, named by Italian media as Oriano Cantari, 64, and Domenico Tedeschi, 36.
The SANA news agency in Syria reported Friday that the pair were seized by an armed terrorist group and freed by Syrian troops in the province of Damascus.
Terzi thanked Italy's crisis unit for their help in securing the return of the technicians and the ministry warned Italians against travelling to Syria.
On Friday, Terzi had welcomed the news of the pair's release but remained cautious about their expected return to Italy, describing preparations to repatriate them as a "very delicate stage of the affair."
Cantari told Italian news agency AGI by phone from a hotel in Damascus that he and Tedeschi were well, but that the experience had been "pretty tough."
"Who kidnapped us? We, too, would like an answer to that," he said. "It's difficult to say because the situation was very confused, and those who took us had their faces covered."
Italy expelled the Syrian ambassador to Rome in May in a coordinated action with other Western governments to protest against a massacre of civilians in the central town of Houla.
Source: Agence France Presse
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