Marc Margindes, a journalist with Catalan daily El Periódico de Catalunya arrived back in Barcelona on Sunday night after half a year as hostage of a jihadist faction in Syria known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
"I'm well. They treated me well," the "visibly thinner" journalist told reporters of his "long and difficult" period in captivity.
Margindes was captured on September 4th on what had been his third trip to Syria since civil war broke out in the country in March 2011.
Two other Spanish journalists remain hostages of ISIL. El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa and Ricardo García Vilanova, a freelance photographer, were seized on September 16th in Raqqa province.
ISIL is thought to be holding up to 30 foreign journalists.
News network Al Jazeera reported recently that ISIL had fled east after a rival Al-Qaeda faction issued an ultimatum for them to leave northern Syria.
Al Jazeera also said there were reports of a possible mass grave in the city of Aazaz, recently abandoned by ISIL.
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