Well-informed Vatican sources on Thursday did not confirm a report in The Times according to which Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest kidnapped in Syria in 2013, is alive. "We have no confirmation", the sources told ANSA of the report, which cited Kurdish forces. The article said the extremist Islamist group is using Dall'Oglio and two other Western hostages, British journalist John Cantlie and a nurse from New Zealand, as "bargaining chips" in negotiations with the US-backed Kurdish-Arab forces surrounding them.
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