A Japanese journalist held captive in Syria for more than three years is finally free.
Japan's Foreign Minister said Wednesday embassy officials visited freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda and confirmed his identity at an immigration center near the border between Turkey and Syria.
Yasuda was kidnapped in Syria in June 2015, allegedly by a Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. He was there reporting on his friend, a fellow journalist that ISIS held hostage and killed.
Interestingly, this wasn't the first time Yasuda had been taken hostage. While reporting in Iraq in 2004, he and three other Japanese nationals were taken hostage. Yasuda was freed after Muslim clerics negotiated his release.
Japan's Prime Minister credited Turkey and Qatar for helping secure Yasuda's freedom.
Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN.
