Four journalists from NBC News have escaped safely after being held in captivity in Syria for five days.
NBC News confirmed early Tuesday that chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and three other crew members are free nearly a week after being captured while on assignment overseas.
According to the organization, Engel and his colleagues were detained on Thursday while trying to move into Syria from Turkey. During the botched entry, kidnappers reportedly blindfolded the journalists and tossed them into the back of a truck.
There was “no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors and no request for ransom during the time the crew was missing,” NBC reports, although Mr. Engel recalled being held by Shiite militants that were “talking openly about their loyalty to the government” of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Five days after being caught, Engel says the crew managed to escape while being moved from one location to another. The journalists were being transferred Monday evening “when their captors ran into a checkpoint manned by members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, a Syrian rebel group,” NBC reports. “There was a confrontation and a firefight ensued. Two of the captors were killed, while an unknown number of others escaped.”
Engel reported live from Turkey Tuesday morning to appear on NBC’s “Today” show.
