NBC’s Richard Engel Released After Being Kidnapped in Syria for 5 Days

NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel is free after being kidnapped in Syria for five days. Engel was missing since last Thursday and reports of his disappearance were beginning to circulate around the media. Tuesday morning NBC announced that the veteran correspondent, two colleagues and a security guard were set free after being held captive by unidentified assailants in Syria.

“After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed,” NBC said in a statement. “We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country.”

Engel was reporting on the Syrian civil war that has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011.

The incident reminds the media of the dangers of reporting from the country. Several journalists have been killed covering the conflict, including French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier, photographer Remi Ochlik and Britain’s Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin.