Syria releases U.S. freelance photographer Kevin Patrick Dawes
Source: Washington Post
The Syrian government has freed an American freelance photographer who was abducted after traveling to the country in 2012, according to two U.S. officials.
Kevin Patrick Dawes, 33, from San Diego, was released following months of negotiations, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details of Dawes’s release have not yet been made public.
In a separate case, Oman released a statement that another U.S. citizen—this one held by Yemeni rebels in Sanaa—was also free. Officials declined to identify the American.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry was personally involved in winning Dawes’s release, which took place in the past few days, according to a State Department official. Another official said the Syrians handed Dawes over to Russian authorities, who then flew him out of Syria. Russia has been one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s biggest backers.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/american-freelance-photographer-freed-in-syria/2016/04/08/8628e5d0-fd88-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_photographer-950am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
