7 Red Cross staff abducted in Syria

DAMASCUS—Gunmen have abducted seven International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Red Crescent staff in Idlib province, one of the main theaters of Syria’s brutal war, the ICRC said.

It came as two suicide car bombings blasted Damascus, and as the ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) evacuated thousands of people from a suburb of the capital that the army has besieged for months.

A key opposition group, meanwhile, said it would not attend any Geneva peace talks, a setback for a US-Russian proposal aimed at ending the 31-month conflict that has killed more than 115,000 people.

The aid workers—six Red Cross staff and a SARC volunteer—were “abducted this morning by unidentified armed men near Sareqeb,” said an ICRC statement.

“We call for the immediate and unconditional release of the seven colleagues,” said Magne Barth, head of the ICRC’s Syria delegation.

The statement did not give the nationality of those abducted, and there has been no claim of responsibility.

The Red Cross, a rare aid group working on both sides of the conflict, said the team had traveled to Idlib on Oct. 10 to assess the situation at health facilities and deliver aid.

“The convoy, which was on its way back to Damascus, was clearly marked with the ICRC emblem, which is not a religious symbol,” it said.

Rebels control large swathes of the northwestern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey.