MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the release of US freelance journalist Peter Theo Curtis after two years in the captivity of a militant group in Syria, CPJ said in a statement.
"We could not be happier that Peter Theo Curtis will return home safely to his family after nearly two years of harrowing captivity in Syria," CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour, said in a statement.
"We remain deeply concerned for the safety of all the journalists who remain hostages in Syria," Mansour added.
Curtis, who was held captive by the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra since October 2012, was handed over to UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights region, and then transferred to US representatives after a medical check-up, according to the CPJ statement published Sunday.
The United Nations confirmed it had facilitated Curtis' release Sunday.
Curtis' return came week after the Islamic State (IS) radical group, formerly part of Jabhat al-Nusra, released a video last week showing the execution of another US freelance journalist James Foley, and threatened to kill one more journalist, Steven Sotloff.
At least 70 journalists have been killed and more than 80 were kidnapped during the three-year conflict in Syria, according to CPJ, which estimates that approximately 20 journalists are currently missing in Syria, most of them Syrian.
