Al Qaeda affiliate treated us well, Nuns chief says as outrage sparks within Assad loyalists

In their first appeared at press conference held by Syrian media, the freed nuns have sparked outrage amid Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists as they said "We have been treated well by 'al-Jabha' Nusra Front," al-Qaeda-linked group.

“We kept practicing our rituals, everything we asked, had been brought to us, we can not deny,” the nuns’ chief said.

The nuns who held by rebels for more than three months have been released following Lebanese-Qatari mediation.

Many Alawite activists have denounced the regime neglecting of their hostages who still under rebels’ control.

“Poor Alawite hostages!! There is no political bargain and no Iranian interest to see them freed,” he added.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, and a rebel source in the area, said the release of the nuns had been agreed as part of a swap in which the government would free about 150 women prisoners. 

Prominent activist Hadi al-Abdullah said in statement posted online that Nusra Front has rejected to take ransom; just they insisted on releasing 151 Syrian female detainees from Assad's prisons. 

The nuns have welcomed the release of female activists, al-Abdulla quoted nuns as saying, "This news is compensating us for being far away from our families as the detainees families are delighted now."

The 13 nuns and three maids were kidnapped from the Christian town of Maaloula north of Damascus in December and taken to the nearby Syrian rebel-held town of Yabroud, where they are believed to have been held by al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.

Shortly after the nuns disappeared, rebel fighters said they had taken them as their "guests" and that they would release them soon.

In December, the nuns appeared in a video obtained by Al Jazeera, 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 earlier on Sunday, but made no mention of any prisoner exchange agreement. It aired live video from the Lebanese border and interviews with church officials.

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 three-year-old-conflict, which has killed more than 140,000 people and which has become increasingly sectarian. Zaman Alwasl and agencies