Freed Spanish journalists return to Madrid

Three Spanish journalists who were kidnapped in Syria in July 2015 arrived back in Spain on Sunday morning after being released on Saturday, the Spanish government has confirmed.

Antonio Pampleiga, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre arrived at the military airport of Torrejon, just outside of Madrid, in a Spanish air-force Falcon 900 jet that had been sent to collect them from Turkey as soon as news of their release had been confirmed late on Saturday afternoon by acting Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.

Saenz de Santamaria was at the airport along with the families of the reporters to greet them on their arrival back home after 10 months in captivity.

The three journalists, who all have wide experience of work in conflict zones, were kidnapped on July 12 in the city of Aleppo two days after entering the north of Syria via Turkey. They were working in a region under the control of the Al-Nusra Front, a Sunni Islamist militia fighting Syrian government forces.

The Spanish government did not go into details surrounding the release of the trio other than saying it had been made possible thanks to "the work of many public servants and the collaboration of allied countries and friends."

Acting Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Margallo commented that he was "happy" the story had "ended happily," while acting Prime Minister Marino Rajoy posted a tweet showing the moment the reporters got off their plane with the message "welcome!"

Source: XINHUA