Freed Italian journalist found 'evil' in Syria
AFP - Italian journalist Domenico Quirico on Tuesday said he and Belgian teacher Pierre Piccinin faced "daily humiliation" during their five months in captivity in Syria and were "treated like animals" by their captors.
The 62-year-old veteran war correspondent for La Stampa daily, who returned to Italy in the night between Sunday and Monday, wrote a first-person account of his captivity in the newspaper.
Quirico said he and Piccinin entered Syria on April 6 with members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and were captured near Qusayr not far from the Lebanese border.
He said they were probably betrayed by members of the FSA.
They were beaten by rebels belonging to a group called al-Faruk and taken to a house in Qusayr, the journalist said.
These rebels "take advantage of the Islamic veneer and the context of the revolution to take over vast tracts of territory, hold the population to ransom, kidnap people and fill their pockets," he said.
http://www.france24.com/en/20130910-freed-italian-journalist-found-evil-syria