Two Spanish journalists freed in Syria

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo says two of its journalists taken hostage in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been freed.

Two Spanish journalists taken hostage by a militant group last year have been freed, the Spanish daily El Mundo reports.

"At 21:27 (Spanish time, 0727 AEDT on Sunday) 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 on its website.

Espinosa and fellow hostage freelance photographer Ricardo Garca Vilanova were kidnapped, along with a third Spanish journalist, last September at a "checkpoint" in Syria's border frontier with Turkey.

All three had been attempting to leave the country.

There was no immediate word on the health of the two journalists, whether any demands were made by their kidnappers or any ransom paid.

Their captors were earlier identified as members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a jihadist faction in Syria.

The third kidnapped journalist, Marc Marginedas, a correspondent for Catalan daily El Periodico, was freed early this month.

Four French journalists, kidnapped nine months ago, remain in captivity in Syria.