An American journalist held captive in Syria by an al Qaeda affiliate group, Jabhat al-Nushrah, was released to United Nations peacekeeping forces in the Israeli Golan Heights, Sunday.
The release of journalist Peter Theo Curtis comes within a week of another U.S. journalist James Wright Foley's beheading by the Islamic State in Iraq. According to reports, Curtis ,who also goes by name Theo Padnos, was taken from Golan Heights to Tel Aviv by U.S. diplomats, reports Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A native of Boston, 45-year-old Curtis was held captive in Syria by al-Nursrah since October 2012. Al-Nusrah is the rebel group fighting a three-year-long civil war with the Syrian government headed by President Bashar Assad.
"Over these last two years, the United States reached out to more than two dozen countries asking for urgent help from anyone who might have tools, influence, or leverage to help secure Theo's release and the release of any Americans held hostage in Syria," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement following the release of Curtis.
"Every waking hour, our thoughts and our faith remain with the Americans still held hostage and with their families, and we continue to use every diplomatic, intelligence, and military tool at our disposal to find them and bring our fellow citizens home," Kerry said.
Curtis's release was apparently secured by Qatar, an ardent oppose of Assad and very active in mediating in hostage situations in the strife-torn area. It said it had "exerted relentless efforts" to win the American's freedom, reports the Associated Press
Meanwhile, officials in the United Kingdom said they they will soon identify the ISIS militant who executed Foley. British ambassador to the U.S. Peter Westmacott told CNN that they were not "far away from" from identifying the killer of Foley. "We're putting a lot into it. And there are some very sophisticated technologies, voice identification and so on, which people can use to check who these people are," he said.
