TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — A Syria-based reporter for Iran's Arabic language television network Al-Alam has been abducted by rebels in the central Syrian city of Homs, the channel said on its website yesterday.

The journalist, named as Ahmad Sattouf, was taken by "armed terrorist groups" as he returned to his home in Homs, Al-Alam said, using the term the allied regimes in Iran and Syria use to designate Syria's rebels.

The channel did not say when exactly Sattouf was abducted, but said he had been missing for "several days."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights separately said that Sattouf, a Syrian, had been abducted overnight Saturday-Sunday.

Al-Alam said that "the rebels also attacked and ransacked" its office in Homs.

Several foreign and Syrian journalists have been targeted in the conflict in Syria.

A domestic news chief for Syria's state new agency SANA was said to have been murdered by rebels outside his home near the capital on Saturday, and an al-Qaeda linked group has claimed responsibility for the murder early this month of a presenter on state television.

Three Syrian state TV journalists were also reportedly abducted by rebels on Friday as they accompanied government troops close to the capital, and last week a bomb attack on state television headquarters wounded several people.

The head of the UN observer mission in Syria on Monday condemned attacks on the media.