Three Spanish journalists kidnapped in Syria return home

According to a statement released by the Spanish government, the three Spanish journalists, Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre who were kidnapped last July in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo have returned home to Spain. Acting Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria welcomed the journalists when they landed at the Torrejon de Ardoz airbase in Madrid, where they had arrived on a flight from Turkey.

Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted "Welcome!" in Spanish, accompanied by a photograph of the three men arriving.

Aleppo is held variously by extremist groups like the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, and other anti-government militia, including ISIS.

The three men seemed to have entered Syria from southern Turkey last July 10 and had not been heard from since July 13. A local fixer who was reportedly working with the men also went missing.

Spanish daily El Pais reported at the time that government sources refused to assume that the reporters had been kidnapped but admitted that there were indications that they had been abducted.

The three men who were members of the group, Reporters Without Borders, are freelance journalists and experienced war reporters, and have covered conflicts from the field before.

Now all three are safely back home.


Source: CNN