Nuns kidnapped in Syria freed

About a dozen nuns held by opposition forces in Syria for more than three months have been released and reached Damascus via Lebanon on Monday.

The patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, John X Yaziji, on Monday lauded the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the nuns' safe return, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA), adding that Syria "rebuffs all kinds of violence, terrorism ... and kidnapping."

The dramatic scene of the nuns being freed from vehicles in the dead of night along the Lebanon-Syria border, bidding their captors a surprisingly friendly farewell, ended the women's three-month ordeal.

The nuns were captured as opposition fighters overran a Christian village and were held in a border town. They were released as government-backed forces battled their way into the strategic town.

A Lebanese security source said the nuns were taken to the Lebanese town of Arsal earlier in the week and headed to Syria on Sunday, accompanied by the head of a Lebanese security agency, Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, and by a Qatari intelligence official.

Ibrahim indicated to NNA that the kidnappers had on multiple occasions changed their demands, delaying the release.

Ibrahim also reportedly said efforts to demand the release of two bishops and a Lebanese and Mauritanian journalist would continue.

The nuns went missing in December after Islamist fighters took the ancient quarter of the Christian town of Maaloula, north of Damascus.

After being held in the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Thecla in Maaloula, they were reportedly moved to the opposition-held town of Yabroud, about 13 miles to the north, which is now the focus of a government military operation.

Speaking to reporters at the border, Syrian Greek Orthodox Bishop Louka al-Khoury welcomed the news. "What the Syrian army achieved in Yabroud facilitated this process," he said.

Shortly after the nuns disappeared, Hard-line Sunni opposition fighters said that they had taken the women as their "guests" and that they would release them soon.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group identified the fighters who took the nuns as being from the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.

The Observatory and an opposition source in the area said the release of the nuns had been negotiated as part of a swap in which the government would free scores of female prisoners.

"The deal is for the release of 138 women from [President Bashar al-]Assad's prisons," the opposition source said.

In December the nuns appeared in a video obtained by Al Jazeera television, saying they were in good health, but it was not clear under what conditions the video had been filmed.

Syrian state television devoted significant coverage to the release on Sunday but made no mention of any prisoner exchange agreement. It broadcast live footage from the border with Lebanon and interviews with church officials, including one who denounced the West as believing only "in the dollar."

A montage of Christian religious imagery — including churches, a statue of the Virgin Mary and murals of Jesus — was set against dramatic music and described Syria as a "cradle of the monotheistic faiths."

Syria's Christian minority has broadly tried to stay on the sidelines of the country's three-year-old-conflict, which has killed more than 140,000 people and has become increasingly sectarian.

But the rise of a hard-line Sunni Muslim opposition has alarmed many. Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam, has portrayed himself as a bulwark against militant and intolerant ideologies.

Al Jazeera and wire services