Syrian terrorists free Spanish journalists

Two Spanish journalists kidnapped by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria have been released, Spain’s El Mundo newspaper reported.

The daily said on its website on Sunday that its correspondent Javier Espinosa, and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, a freelance photographer, were freed on Saturday.

“At 21:27 (Spanish time 2027 GMT Saturday) veteran El Mundo Middle East correspondent Javier Espinosa called the paper’s newsroom and said they had been released and handed over to the Turkish military,” the paper said.

The two were abducted, along with another Spanish journalist Marc Marginedas, at a checkpoint near the border with Turkey on September 16, while trying to leave Syria after a two-week mission.

The daily had earlier said that the journalists were captured by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Marginedas, a correspondent for Catalan newspaper El Periodico, was released earlier in March.

The foreign-backed militants operating in Syria have abducted several journalists since the beginning of the crisis in the country in March 2011.

In January, two Swedish journalists who were abducted in Syria in November were released. Journalist Magnus Falkehed and freelance photographer Niclas Hammarstrom were reportedly kidnapped while they were leaving Syria.

In late October 2013, the militants assassinated Syrian reporter Mohammad Saeed, who worked for al-Arabiya news channel, in the northwestern city of Aleppo.

Press TV correspondent Maya Naser was also killed by terrorists while reporting live on September 26, 2012.