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Two Spanish Journalists Free After 6-Month Syrian Kidnapping


Two Spanish journalists returned home Sunday, winning their freedom after being kidnapped by an al-Qaida-linked group and held for six months in Syria.

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo said correspondent Javier Espinosa and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova were freed and handed over to the Turkish military. They flew to Madrid, where relatives and friends joyfully greeted them.

It was not clear whether the two journalists had escaped or were released. They said they could not disclose details about their captivity or how they won their freedom.

They were abducted September 16 as they tried to cross the Syrian border to Turkey after covering the civil war in Syria.

The newspaper identified their captors as members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a jihadist faction in Syria linked to al-Qaida's Iraqi affiliate.
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