Freed US journalist Peter Theo Curtis taken to Tel Aviv

An American journalist who was freed after almost two years of captivity in Syria is believed to be in the custody of the US embassy in Tel Aviv, where he is likely to be undergoing medical checks and preliminary debriefing.

Peter Theo Curtis (45) was handed over to UN peacekeepers in the village of al-Rafid, close to the boundary between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria. He had been held by Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, since autumn 2012.

His family released a statement thanking the US and Qatari governments for negotiating his release. “While the family is not privy to the exact terms that were negotiated, we were repeatedly told by representatives of the Qatari government that they were mediating for Theo’s release on a humanitarian basis without the payment of money,” it said. The family had received ransom demands that began at $3m and rose to $25m.

– (Guardian service)