Peter Theo Curtis freed two years after Syria’s Nusra Front kidnapped him | National Post |
An American held hostage in Syria by an A-Qaeda-linked group has been released after about two years, the Obama administration and a relative confirmed Sunday, days after militants had beheaded a U.S. journalist abducted while covering that country’s civil war.
The U.S. identified the freed American as Peter Theo Curtis of Massachusetts and said he now was safe and outside of Syria. The United Nations said it helped with the handover to U.N. peacekeepers in a village in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and that Curtis was released to American authorities after a medical checkup.
The administration provided no details about the circumstances of his abduction or his release. It was not known what prompted Curtis’ release.
A cousin of Curtis,’ Viva Hardigg, declined to provide details on the circumstances of his release, but said that he had been held by the Nusra Front, which is Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
U.S. hostage Peter Theo Curtis freed in Syria | Washington Post |
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network, which first reported the release, said Qatar had played a key role in the negotiations. It did not give details, but Qatar has been central to a number of hostage releases in Syria in recent months.
In one release negotiated by Qatar last year, Lebanese captives in rebel custody were exchanged for prisoners held by the Syrian government. Earlier this year, a group of Syrian nuns held by Jabhat al-Nusra also were released in return for prisoners held by the government.