Five MSF staffers abducted in northern Syria

Five employees of Doctors without Borders (MSF) have been abducted from a house in northern Syria by an unknown group, the medical humanitarian group said on Friday.

REUTERS/Mahmoud Hebbo

"MSF confirms that five members of its staff were taken yesterday night from an MSF house in the north of Syria by a group, apparently for questioning," spokeswoman Samantha Maurin said in a statement.

MSF runs six hospitals and four health care centres in northern Syria as well as medical support from neighbouring countries to within Syria and to refugees fleeing from the protracted conflict.

In October, seven employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross were kidnapped in the northwestern Idlib province.

A Syrian NGO blamed the abduction on the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has also been accused of targeting journalists and other aid workers.