On the Today Show this morning, NBC News correspondent Richard Engle explained that he and his team were ambushed by about 15 gunmen while traveling in Syria. The militants held them for five days.
Engle explained that they suffered “psychological torture” as their captors pretended to shoot members of their team while they were blindfolded.
The kidnappers were “Shabiha,” Engle reported, a government militia loyal to Syrian President Assad.
The group ran into a rebel checkpoint while traveling in a van. During the firefight which ensued, some of the kidnappers were killed, and Engle and his team were rescued.
