By Prensa Latina,
Damascus : The two US journalists reported missing the past week in Lebanon remain under arrest in Syria, where they are currently questioned, due to their illegal entry to this country, the local foreign ministry reported.
Jurnalists Taylor Luck and Holli Chmela, who work for the Jordan Times daily, arrived in Beirut on September 29 and left in a supposed trip to northern Lebanese Tripoli.
A Foreign Ministry communique, published on Thursday, said the two journalists are in the hands of the authorities, “because they entered Syria illegally, crossing the border.”
Diplomatic sources asserted that the two detainees are in good health condition.
The official communique, quoted by the SANA news agency, said the detainees entered this country with the help of a smuggler, a fact related to lack of records of their entry through the border.
The US embassy to this capital has already been reported about the issue and it is currently in contact with the authorities, who would return the journalists after fulfilling rigorous measures.
The Jordan Times said Lucj works in Aman as reporter for the daily, and Chmela is a scholar. They did not return to Jordan from their vacation trip in early October.
After the US diplomatic mission to Beirut learned that the US journalists were missing, it suggested that they could have been kidnapped by an extremist group in northern Lebanon, said the Ad Dyar newspaper.