Kidnapped US journalist freed in Syria
Last edited Sun Aug 24, 2014, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)
Kidnapped US journalist freed in Syria
An American journalist kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago has been freed and handed over to UN representatives.
Peter Theo Curtis was freed from captivity on Sunday, after reportedly being abducted in Antakya, Turkey, where he planned to enter Syria in October 2012.
Footage of the the American was released on June 30, showing a disheveled Curtis with long hair and beard, but appearing to be in good health.
Speaking in a video obtained by Al Jazeera, Curtis read from a prepared script stating his name and profession, saying he was a journalist from Boston, Massachusetts.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/us-journalist-kidnapped-syria-peter-theo-curtis-2014824132444444921.html
A bit of good news.
UPDATE with more details:
An American freelance journalist held captive for nearly two years by Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria was freed on Sunday in a handover to United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights.
The freelance journalist, Peter Theo Curtis, from Boston, was abducted near the Syria-Turkey border in October 2012. He was held by the Nusra Front, the Qaeda affiliate in Syria, which has broken with the even more radical Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Another American journalist, James W. Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria the following month, was beheaded last week by ISIS, which posted the images of his death on YouTube.
<snip>
The Nusra Front and ISIS were once a single organization, but the groups split over ideological and tactical differences, with ISIS going its own way and Nusra remaining loyal to Al Qaeda’s central command. One of the issues that divided them was the acceptable level of brutality. Since the split, Al Qaeda has criticized the unrestrained attacks by the Sunni militants of ISIS against Shiite Muslims, as well as their attacks on Christian villages.
Three Americans are still believed to be captives of ISIS — two men and one woman. The group has threatened to behead one of them, the journalist Steve Sotloff, if the United States does not meet its demands, including stopping airstrikes on ISIS positions in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/world/middleeast/peter-theo-curtis-held-by-qaeda-affiliate-in-syria-is-freed-after-2-years.html
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