Italian Women Plead for Lives in Syria Video

Two young Italian aid workers kidnapped in Syria last summer plead for their lives in a chilling new video released by their captors. Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo, 20 and 21 years old, are seen wearing Islamic garb in the video, and one holds up a piece of paper with the date December 17, CNN reports. "We supplicate our government and its mediators to bring us back home before Christmas," the other woman says. "We are in big danger and we could be killed. The government and its mediators are responsible of our lives."

The pair were kidnapped just days after arriving in Syria last July and had not been seen since August 1, the Telegraph reports. Italian authorities haven't publicly commented on the video, but sources say they believe it to be genuine. According to La Repubblica, the two women are being held not by ISIS, but by the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which says it is keeping them captive because their country supports attacks against it in Syria. (More Syria stories.)