Polish photojournalist Marcin Suder has been kidnapped by Islamist militants in north west Syria, say opposition activists.
Suder, who works for the Studio Melon photo agency based in Warsaw, was abducted in a raid by armed Islamists on an opposition media office in the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, Idlib province, Reuters reports.
Computers and money were stolen in the raid in what could be part of conflict between opposition groups fighting against the authoritarian Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
Poland's Foreign Ministry's spokesman Marcin Bosacki said that a special team had been put together to look into the “likely” kidnapping of the Polish journalist.
Eye witnesses said that foreigners were among the armed men who stormed the opposition media office.
Patrycja Sasnal, from the Polish Institute of International Affairs told the PAP news agency that "if the reports are confirmed that some opposition forces have kidnapped the photojournalist then it probably happened as part of a conflict between two groups”.
Referring to data by the Committee to Protect Journalists that up to 50 journalists were kidnapped by extremist rebels in Syria last year, Sasnal pointed out that many were released unharmed.
"We do not have to expect the worst. Remember the kidnappings, which involved the abduction of French and US journalists, that ended happily,” she said.
Around 100,000 have been killed in the ongoing conflict between government and rebel forces, the US estimates.
Alicja Otap
