more through who you think this was? did they seem experienced? you and your team have been throughout syria. and what clues were you getting along the way about what they wanted? yeah, i think i have a very good idea of who they were. this was a group known as the shabiha. this is a government militia. these are people who are loyal to president bashar al assad. they are shiite. they were talking openly about their loyalty to the government, openly expressing their shia faith. they are trained by iranian revolutionary guard. they are allied with hezbollah. we were told that they wanted to exchange us for four iranian agents and two lebanese people who were from the movement. they captured us in order to carry out this exchange. and that s what they were hoping to do. they were going to bring us to a hezbollah stronghold inside syria right now.
but as you can see, looking like himself. on the left this is gazi and john cloister, a long-time nbc news photographer. these three men were able to appear live on the today show, fife days after being kidnapped and held in captivity in syria. just hours before this shot of them this morning, they were freed by a syrian rebel group who rescued them from an unknown group that had taken them and that had held them for five, long, horrible days. the rebel group not only rescued these three, they then took responsibility for driving them to the border and getting them safely out of syria. they were in syria in the first place to cover the war there. this is footage of richard s last piece for nbc news before the kidnapping happened. richard and his team are veterans in this field. they ve been working together for a decade in just about every corner of the world you can imagine, including long stints covering the war in iraq. also the war in afghanistan. when they filed this report last
you think they re going to be taking you outside to execute. for five days. but we did find that happy spot. we kept each other, as ghazi said. we passed messages to each other. we joked around. we weren t allowed to speak. but if you sort of look kind of peek underneath the blindfold, you can see if maybe there is a guard in the room or not. and we tried to joke back and forth and keep our spirits up. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel and his crew. ghazi balkiz and john kooistra. they were freed after five days after being held by an unknown group inside war-torn syria. what richard said about there being other people held who are not freed. he is right. austin tice is an american reporter who has worked for a number of outlets, including mcclatchy service and the washington post. he has been missing in syria since august. in all there are 15 journalists who have reported to have gone missing in syria while reporting on this conflict. so far of the 15 on
and that s what they were hoping to do. they were going to bring us to a hezbollah stronghold inside syria right now. we were on our way there when we ran into this rebel checkpoint and we had this escape and freedom. and richard, john, and gazi, i know you all are all very experienced. but i m wondering how you are feeling this morning, how you re doing and how you re processing what must have been an absolutely terrifying experience. gazi, you want that? well, to be honest, when we first got captured, for me at least it was a bit of a moment of disbelief. but i ve worked with those guys for a long time in harsh environments. and we get each other very well. we work with each other very well. i was actually captured with them because we kept each other s spirits up.
was? did they seem experienced? you and your team have been throughout syria. and what clues were you getting along the way about what they wanted? yeah, i think i have a very good idea of who they were. this was a group known as the shabiha. this is a government militia. these are people who are loyal to president bashar al assad. they are shiite. they were talking openly about their loyalty to the government, openly expressing their shia faith. they are trained by iranian revolutionary guard. they are allied with hezbollah. we were told that they wanted to exchange us for four iranian agents and two lebanese people who were from the movement. they captured us in order to carry out this exchange. and that s what they were hoping