Journalist Javier Espinosa and photographer Ricardo
Garcia-Vilanova were taken by rebel group the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL) on September 16 at a checkpoint in Raqqa
province, which fell to militant Islamist brigades in March, the
journalists' families said.
Espinosa, who works for El Mundo newspaper, and freelance
photographer Garcia-Vilanova were just a few kilometers from the
border with Turkey and were trying to leave Syria at the time. They
were taken to Raqqa city.
They were traveling with members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, who
were also taken by ISIL but released after 12 days.
The incident had not been reported until now because of negotiations
with the rebels holding the men.
"We have reached an impasse with the captors after many weeks of
attempted mediation," Monica Preito, Espinosa's wife and fellow
journalist who has covered the Syrian civil war, said at a news
conference in Beirut.
"Today we appeal to the Syrian people and all armed groups to help
release Javier and Ricardo who have always been committed to show
the human face and suffering of the Syrian people during these very
difficult times," she said.
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The pair are veteran journalists who have covered the Syrian
conflict since its beginning and have traveled to the region around
10 times.
According to the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists, 55 journalists have been killed and 30 are still missing in Syria,
making the 2 1/2 year-old crisis the most dangerous place in the
world for media workers.
Syria's conflict began with peaceful protests in March 2011 and
developed into an armed insurrection when these were violently
suppressed. More than 100,000 people have been killed and fighting
has broadly settled into a stalemate.
Hardline Islamist groups have exploited the power vacuum in many
rebel-held areas to exercise their authority at the expense of more
moderate opposition factions.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Sonya Dowsett in Madrid,
editing by Angus MacSwan)
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