American Hostage Freed

An Islamist organization decided it wasn't as violent as the Islamic State and let go an American journalist it held for over two years.

"Finally he is returning home," US Secretary of State John Kerry said late Sunday, confirming the release of Peter Theo Curtis, a 45-year-old author and freelance journalist whose disappearance had not been previously reported.


Curtis was handed over to UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights and after undergoing a medical checkup was transferred to US representatives, the United Nations said.


News of his release came less than a week after a grisly video surfaced showing the beheading of American reporter James Foley at the hands of a masked Islamic State militant.