Spain's Foreign Minister lauds intelligence agencies for securing release of kidnapped journalists

Spain's acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo on Monday lauded intelligence agencies who helped secure the release of three Spanish journalists from Syria.

He said Spanish intelligence services (CNI) "worked wonderfully well" and thanked Turkey and Qatar for helping in the process of releasing the three journalists, Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre.

The journalists were freed on Saturday by their captors Al-Nusra Front. They were kidnapped in July 2015 in the city of Aleppo two days after entering the north of Syria where they were going to do a news report.

Sastre on Monday told a local radio station that he was "very happy" to be back in Madrid with his family.

Pampliega, Lopez and Sastre, all of whom have experience of reporting from conflict zones, arrived on Sunday at the military airport of Torrejon in Spain after being released.

Source: XINHUA