[NBCNEWS] An American captured nearly two years ago was released in Syria, U.S. officials said Sunday.
Peter Theo Curtis was freed from the "clutches" of Jabhat Al-Nusrah (the al-Qaeda affiliate fighting in Syria), Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
said. The United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
said in a statement that Curtis was handed over to U.N. officials in Quneitra, in the south west region of Syria, on Sunday night local time. After a medical evaluation, Curtis was released to U.S. representatives, the U.N. said. National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice said Curtis was "safe" and expected to be "reunited with his family shortly."
âOver these last two years, the United States reached out to more than two dozen countries asking for urgent help from anyone who might have tools, influence, or leverage to help secure Theo's release and the release of any Americans held hostage in Syria,â Kerry said.
Curtis was reportedly kidnapped in Antakya, Turkey, where he planned to enter Syria in October 2012, according to Al Jazeera, which also reported he was released with the help of Qatari mediators. Curtis was, for a time, held with an American photographer Matthew Schrier, a source close to Schrier told NBC News. Schrier escaped Aleppo in July 2013, more than half a year after being kidnapped, and told the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
in August of that year that he and his American cellmate were accused by their captors of being spies.
The release comes just days after the Islamist myrmidon group ISIS beheaded American journalist James Foley and threatened to kill another American journalist in their custody, Steven Sotloff. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that 20 journalists are currently being held captive in Syria. 
|
