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Middle East and North Africa

Islamic militants upload video recording of Russian engineer abducted in Syria

“If the exchange doesn’t take place, I’ll be stabbed,” the man says

Photo EPA Archive/MAYSUN

Photo EPA Archive/MAYSUN

DAMASCUS, October 24 (Itar-Tass) - Islamic militants have uploaded in the Internet a video recording of an address read out on camera by the Russian citizen Sergei Nikolayevich Gorbunov, an engineer abducted in Syria.

Gorbunov is featured as he is reading out a text asking the Russian and Syrian authorities to exchange him via the International Red Cross for the Saudia national, Haled Suleiman, whom the Syrian authorities detained in the city of Hama.

“If the exchange doesn’t take place, I’ll be stabbed,” the man says.

It was impossible either to confirm or to deny the genuineness of the video recording at the time this story went on wire.

Islamist militants are holding one more Russian hostage, Konstantin Zhuravlyov, a fan of extreme traveling. He penetrated the Syrian territory from Turkey without any authorization and thus encroached on Syrian laws - an offense that may entail a prison term.

Zhuravlyov mentioned Syria as just a leg of his wanderings aimed at reaching the Sahara.

The militants claim they “detained a Russian spy.”

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