To frilansfotografer ble tatt til fange i Syria av utenlandske jihadister som ville ha løsepenger. De ble befridd av soldater fra Den frie syriske hær.

Hendelsen sier mye om situasjonen på opprørssiden. Utlendingene kan ødelegge mye. Men det er viktig å være klar over forskjellene. De er ikke del av Den frie syriske hær. Eller, i det minste – det er deler av Den frie syriske hær som forstår hvor ødeleggende kidnapping av soldater kan være og handler deretter.

The two men, both freelance photographers, John Cantlie, a Briton, and Jeroen Oerlemans, from the Netherlands, were captured on 19 July by a group of men they identified as jihadists who had travel to Syria to join the uprising against the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad.

In an interview with NOS Netherlands, a Dutch television station, Oerlemans, said he and Cantlie stumbled upon the jihadist camp after being led across the Turkish border by a Syrian guide. Both men were shot when they tried to escape. Oerlemans has recovered from a gunshot wound to his left thigh.

The jihadist group is believed to have arrived in the area only days earlier and is believed to be made up solely of men who identify with a salafist jihadist world view, a more puritanical version of Islam.

«There wasn’t a Syrian present,» Oerlemans said. «They were all youngsters from other countries, African countries, Chechnya. They said they thought we were CIA agents. But then it quickly became apparent they wanted to trade us for ransom.

Det så stygt ut, de to forsøkte å flykte, men ble skutt. Alt håp syntes ute. De fryktet å bli ført ut av landet.

Oerlemans told NOS that a Free Syria Army group, which is trying to overthrow Assad, had entered the camp on Thursday night and demanded they be released.

«There was a moment that we thought we would be disappeared, disappear from the radar screen, that they would take us to a place where no one would ever find us again. Like a place outside Syria, maybe Iraq, or to be handed over to another armed group. Just at that moment, a group of armed men came into the camp. We were blindfolded and bound, trying to wash our clothes at the time.

«They stormed into our tent and started dressing down everyone: why the hell we were being kept there, how long we had been kept there, why we were being treated this way.

«They were FSA, FSA soldiers. I don’t know which faction. They managed to intimidate the youth in the camp enough that they could take us out of the camp. Five minutes later they took us out of the camp while shooting (in the air I think).

«Where the FSA seems to be fighting for democracy, these foreign fighters don’t want anything more than imposing sharia on Syria. Syrians are pretty moderate Muslims in general, but they want to put them under the heavy boot of sharia law.»

Jihadists in Syria release two journalists captured a week ago
Jihadists trying to overthrow Assad free British and Dutch photographers after apparently failing to raise a ransom