Syria rebels kidnap two Spanish reporters

Spanish newspaper El Mundo says a reporter and photographer were kidnapped by the insurgent group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in September.

syria_journo_kidnap_Espinosa_aap.jpg

A picture taken on October 13, 2011 shows Javier Espinosa of Spanish newspaper "El Mundo" reacting after receiving the writing press prize at the annual Bayeux-Calvados award ceremony. (File: AAP)

A militant group kidnapped two Spanish journalists reporting in Syria in September and is holding them captive, El Mundo newspaper reports.

El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, a freelance photographer, were seized on September 16 in Raqqa province, the Spanish daily said on its website.

They were kidnapped at a checkpoint near the Turkish border as they tried to leave Syria at the end of a two-week reporting mission.

They were captured along with four members of the Free Syrian Army, the main rebel group fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, who were supposed to protect them, the newspaper said.

The four Syrians were later released.

The newspaper identified the captors as members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a jihadist faction in Syria.

El Mundo said it had kept the kidnapping quiet until now while it held indirect communications with the captors, who have still not asked for anything in return for their captives.

Espinosa has been a Middle East correspondent for El Mundo since 2002, based in Beirut.

Like Garcia, he has covered some of the most dangerous points in the Syrian conflict, including the siege of Homs in February 2012.

On February 22 he escaped that bloodbath in which human rights groups said 700 people were killed and thousands injured, and made it back to Lebanon a week later.

Among those killed in Homs were two other foreign journalists - US reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

Espinosa wrote of his escape from the city, under fire among a crowd of wounded refugees, in a compelling reportage published on March 3.

Garcia Vilanova has worked for media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and Agence France-Presse, for whom he has contributed reports from Libya and Syria.

"Espinosa and Vilanova share the spirit of sacrifice necessary to cover conflicts, where difficulties and sometimes suffering are a challenge," El Mundo wrote on Tuesday.


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Source: AAP



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