January 16, 2015
ROME (AFP) - Two Italian aid workers abducted in northern Syria last summer arrived in Rome at dawn Friday, a day after they were released.
The flight carrying Greta Ramelli, 20, and Vanessa Marzullo, 21, from Turkey landed at Ciampino military airport near the Italian capital at 4:00 am (0300 GMT), an AFP reporter said.
The two women were welcomed by Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni and, in the absence of their loved ones, descended from the plane without much display of emotion.
Wearing faint smiles and with their heads lowered, the women were rushed into the airport hall without a word or even a nod towards the press.
They were to be taken to hospital for a checkup and then to see Rome's anti-terrorist prosecution office, which has opened an investigation into their abduction.
The women, from Lombardy in northern Italy, disappeared on July 31 near Aleppo in northern Syria three days after they arrived from Turkey.
