An Alawite man's hope to reunite with his captured family
But on Aug. 4, Sunni rebels positioned in Salma and Doreen captured Blouta and 10 other Alawite villages before dawn. Some 105 Alawite women and children were taken hostage in the raids. Although regime forces won back the villages 15 days later, the captives remain in the custody of Katibat il Muhajiroon, or the Battalion of Emigrants, a hard-line group of foreign fighters led by a Libyan, Abu Jaafar il Libi.
"At first I thought it couldn't be true," said Talal, speaking from the Lebanese capital, Beirut. He called his wife's cellular phone. Somebody picked up but didn't speak.
"I could hear screams and cries and shouts of 'Allahu akbar' (God is great)," and then the line went dead, said Talal. He called and sent text messages requesting information about his family. All went unanswered.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/5/an-alawite-man-shopetoreunitewithhiscapturedfamily.html
Video of the hostages: