Two Spanish journalists freed in Syria

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that one of its reporters, kidnapped at a 'checkpoint' between Syria and Turkey and held hostage by an al-Qaeda-linked group, has been freed, along with a freelance photographer who was also held

Two Spanish journalists have been freed after spending more than six months being held by a rogue al Qaeda-linked group in Syria.

Javier Espinosa, 49, and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, 42, were on their way home to Spain on Sunday after their captors released them to the Turkish military.

The pair were kidnapped on September 16 by a jihadist faction known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) as they attempted to cross the border from Syria to Turkey after a two-week assignment covering the conflict for Spain’s daily El Mundo newspaper.

Mr Espinosa, an awarding winning veteran correspondent for El Mundo who has been based in Beirut since 2002, contacted the newspaper on Saturday evening.

“Hello, I am Javier Espinosa, make a note of this number and call me back,” he told the receptionist. “We are fine, the both of us. Ricardo and me. Please tell Monica (his partner) and our parents.”

The news of their release after 194 days in captivity was greeted with joy by family, friends and colleagues.

“Pure happiness,” tweeted Monica Garcia Prieto, Mr Espinosa’s girlfriend who is also an award winning journalist.

“It has been a hard few months. We knew the wait would be long but you never get used to it,” said Ana Alonso Montes, the editor of El Mundo’s international pages, on Sunday.

“You never know when the moment of liberation will come, although we never doubted it would,” she told Spain’s national radio.

Some 40 other western hostages are still being held by the group, including at least nine foreign reporters and several aid workers. Many other Syrian reporters are also in captivity.

Mr Espinosa narrowly escaped death when he was caught in an attack on the besieged city of Homs in February 2012. A rocket fired at a house where he and other foreign journalists were staying killed Marie Colvin, a Sunday Times correspondent and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer.

El Mundo only publicised the kidnapping of its two journalists in December after trying to mediate with the captors via intermediaries. No details have yet been given as to whether any demands were made by the captors or any ransom paid.