BEIRUT (AP) — Gunmen abducted six Red Cross workers and a Syrian Red Crescent volunteer after stopping their convoy early Sunday in northwestern Syria, a spokesman said, in the latest high-profile kidnapping in the country's civil war.

Simon Schorno, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Damascus, said the assailants snatched the seven aid workers from their convoy near the town of Saraqeb in Idlib province around 11:30 a.m. local time (0830 GMT) as the team was returning to Damascus. He declined to provide the nationalities of the six ICRC employees, and said it was not clear who was behind the attack

Syria's state news agency, quoting an anonymous official, said the gunmen opened fire on the ICRC team's four vehicles before seizing the Red Cross workers. The news agency blamed "terrorists," a term the government uses to refer to those opposed to President Bashar Assad.

Schorno said the team of seven had been in the field since Oct. 10 to assess the medical situation in the area and to look at how to provide medical aid. He said the part of northern Syria where they were seized "by definition is a difficult area to go in," and the team was traveling with armed guards.

!Read News! - Gunmen Kidnap 7 Red Cross Workers In Syria**

A group of gunmen, believed to be Syrian rebels, have abducted variety of nongovernmental organization employees in northwest Asian nation when gap fireplace on their vehicles

The employees were traveling within the Idlib space once gunmen blocked their path, shot at their convoy, condemned them associate degreed took them to an unknown location, in step with a state press association report.
The International Committee of the nongovernmental organization (ICRC) confirmed six nongovernmental organization employees were kidnapped together with a neighborhood volunteer of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent
"An armed FTO these days abducted variety of employees within the mission of the International Committee of the nongovernmental organization in Asian nation," the national capital report aforementioned, employing a term the govt oftentimes uses for rebels making an attempt to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The report failed to offer additional details like the nationalities of these command and will not instantly be verified.
A spokesperson for the ICRC in Geneva aforementioned he couldn't ensure or deny media reports that 3 ICRC employees were abducted in Idlib.

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