Richard Engel talks being held captive in Syria

The NBC News correspondent and members of his production team were freed after being held for five days

Published December 18, 2012 1:57PM (EST)

     (NBC/Today Show)
(NBC/Today Show)

On the Today Show, NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel described the "traumatizing" experience of being held captive in Syria for five days, now that he and his news production team have been freed unharmed.

“It is good to be here,” Engel said, broadcasting from Turkey. “I’m very happy that we’re able to do this live shot this morning.”

"We weren't physically beaten or tortured. It was a lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed," Engel continued. "They made us choose which one of us would be shot first and when we refused there were mock shootings. They pretended to shoot [NBC producer Ghazi Balkiz] several times."

Watch:


By Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

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