Spanish journalists released unharmed
Print Edition
THREE Spanish freelance journalists held captive in Syria for nearly 10 months returned home yesterday, tearfully hugging relatives as they got off a military jet sent to Turkey to bring them back.
Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre shook hands with Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria on the tarmac of the Torrejon de Ardoz air force base on the outskirts of Madrid. They then smiled and cried as relatives ran to hug them.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy posted a photograph of the journalists descending from the aircraft with a caption saying “Welcome!” on his official Twitter account.
“Allied and friendly” countries had assisted in ensuring the journalists’ release, his office said in a statement late Saturday.
It highlighted Turkey and Qatar, saying they had helped out “especially in the final phase” of the journalists’ liberation.
It provided no information on the captors and how they were convinced to give up the journalists.
The three journalists went missing on July 12, near the city of Aleppo in northern Syria.
At the time, the region was under the control of Al Qaida’s branch in Syria known as the Nusra Front.
The journalists, who provided news to several media outlets, traveled to Syria to report on the war that had broken out there in 2011.
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