Peter Theo Curtis, held captive in Syria since 2012, released into Golan Heights

[Jonzky]

[quote]
Secretary of state John Kerry on Sunday confirmed the release in Syria of Peter Theo Curtis, an American journalist who had been held for two years by the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of al-Qaida.

Kerry, speaking as debate continued in the US over the proper response to the killing of another journalist, James Foley, by Islamic State (Isis) militants, said Curtis’s time in captivity had been “a horrific period”.

Curtis’s family released a statement in which his mother, Nancy Curtis, said: “The Curtis family is deeply grateful to the governments of the United States and Qatar and to the many individuals, private and public, who helped negotiate the release of our son, brother and cousin.”

The statement added: “While the family is not privy to the exact terms that were negotiated, we were repeatedly told by representatives of the Qatari government that they were mediating for Theo’s release on a humanitarian basis without the payment of money.”

An unnamed Qatari source told Reuters: “Qatari intelligence agencies were behind the release of the American journalist in Syria.”

The Qatari-owned television station al-Jazeera first reported Curtis’s release, saying he had been handed over to a representative of the United Nations. Reuters’ Qatari source did not have details on what Qatar had done to free Curtis, saying only that it had been a matter of “communication with the right people in Syria”.
[/quote]
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/24/us-journalist-freed-syria-peter-curtis[/url]

[dookster]

It's nice to be seeing some good news coming out of this horrible mess.

[Riller]

Jabhat al-Nusra were prolly like "Well, fuck this shit!" after seeing the shit IS got themselves into.