A group of Greek Orthodox nuns who were held for three months by rebels in Syria after being taken from their convent in Maaloula have arrived back in Damascus. The nuns were brought to the Lebanese border town of Arsal early on Monday where they were handed over to Lebanese officials and then brought back to Syria.

They said they were tired, but that they had been mostly well treated.

They were freed as part of a prisoner exchange involving some 150 women and children held by the Syrian government.

The deal was negotiated by officials from Qatar and Lebanon.

The [al-Nusra] Front was good to us... but we had to take off our crosses because we were in the wrong place to wear them” Mother Pelagia Sayyaf

The nuns and their attendants, tired but apparently well after their ordeal, were brought through a rebel border crossing to Arsal, a town the north-eastern Bekaa Valley, early on Monday.

They were then quickly taken to the nearby official border point and handed over to the Syrian authorities.

Damascus Governor Hafez Makhlouf was among the officials who greeted the nuns before they were driven to the Greek Orthodox patriarchate.

It is believed they were held by the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist rebel group affiliated to al-Qaeda.

Mother Pelagia Sayyaf, head of the Mar Takla monastery in Maaloula, said the nuns had been treated well.