US News

US journalist kidnapped in Syria 2 years ago is freed

It’s a kinder, gentler al Qaeda— at least when compared with ISIS.

Syrian militants linked to al Qaeda released kidnapped US journalist Peter Theo Curtis Sunday, just days after the even more savage ISIS beheaded American photojournalist James Wright Foley.

AP Photo; freejamesfoley.org, Nicole Tung (right)
Curtis, 45, was handed over to United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights and was en route to Tel Aviv after a medical exam, officials said.

The reporter, who uses the pen name Theo Padnos, disappeared while working in the Middle East nearly two years ago, but his capture was previously kept quiet.

The US State Department said Curtis — who has blogged for the Huffington Post, New Republic and London Review of Books — was held by the al-Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate that is battling the Syrian government.

Earlier this year, al Qaeda formally distanced itself from the hard-line Islamic State — also known as ISIS or ISIL — after a rift developed between that group and the al-Nusra Front.

The February statement from al Qaeda’s General Command faulted the Islamic State’s lack of “teamwork.” Al Qaeda higher-ups also were said to actually consider ISIS too brutal.

Last week, the Islamic State released a grisly video that showed Foley’s beheading — a tactic that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has advised against.

ISIS fighters celebrate in the city of Mosul.Reuters

In a 2005 letter, Zawahiri — who took over al Qaeda after the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos — wrote that Muslims would never find the gory videos “palatable.”

Curtis, author of the 2011 book “Undercover Muslim: A Journey into Yemen,” went missing from the Turkish border town of Antakya in October 2012 after telling colleagues he was headed to Syria to teach English, according to The Washington Post.

He was held for a time with American photographer Matthew Schrier, who escaped from a cell in Aleppo, Syria, last year.

Curtis’ release was arranged with the help of Qatar, according to Al Jazeera.

With Post Wires