3 Spanish journalists go missing in Syria’s Aleppo

Three Spanish journalists have gone missing in Syria where they were making a report on the country’s northwestern region, Spanish media say.

On July 10, José Manuel López, aged 44, Ángel Sastre, aged 35, and 33-year-old Antonio Pampliega entered Syria from Turkey “and there has been no news of them since July 12,” the president of the Federation of Press Associations of Spain (FAPE), Elsa Gonzalez, was quoted by AFP as saying on Spanish state television on Tuesday.

“In that region (Aleppo) there is intense fighting going on, so there is cause for concern… For the moment we can only call it a disappearance,” she further said, adding that Spanish government officials “cannot yet conclude that they have been kidnapped.”

The journalists were working for various media, including ABC and Spanish newspaper La Razon. They are presumed to be working together in Aleppo, however, Gonzalez did not confirm it.

“We don’t know (if they were together) doing their investigative reports in Aleppo,” Gonzalez said, adding that “another three Spanish journalists were kidnapped in the same area” in 2013.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 84 journalists have been killed in Syria since 2011, while a number of others remain missing or have been released for ransom, after being held captive by the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

Since March 2011, Syria has been grappling with a militancy sponsored by foreign countries, including Turkey, the United States and some of its regional Arab allies. The crisis has left nearly 230,000 people killed.