Three Syrian journalists abducted by rebels

Syrian rebels on Friday captured three journalists who work for state television as they accompanied government troops operating near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

"Three Syrian journalists who work for state television were seized by rebels while they were on assignment, accompanying soldiers in Al-Tal," just north of Damascus, the monitoring group said.

It said they were "taken prisoner during clashes in al-Tal where the rebels attacked and destroyed a tank."

The incident came after a bomb blast rocked the headquarters of Syrian state television in the heart of Damascus on Monday, in an attack which authorities said wounded several people.

And the Observatory said last week that television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed, kidnapped from his Damascus home in mid-July, had been executed. Al-Nusra, a little-known Islamist militant group, claimed the murder.

Islamist rebels are seeking to manipulate the ongoing uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to serve their purposes.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)