Syria confirms detention of two missing US journalists (Roundup)

Oct 9, 2008, 13:15 GMT

Damascus - Syrian security officials have arrested two US journalists for illegally entering Syria through its northern borders, an official source at the country's Foreign Ministry told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Thursday.

In a statement to the official SANA news agency, the Syrian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the two detainees were US journalists Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, who work for the Jordan Times. The two had been reported missing Wednesday after they failed to return from vacation in Lebanon.

The two had told friends they intended to take a side trip to Aleppo, in Syria.

The Syrian security authorities had stopped the two 'after entering the northern Syrian borders illegally and with the help of a smuggler,' the statement carried by SANA read.

The US charge d'affaires in Damascus had been summoned over the incident, it said.

'The Syrian security authorities are interrogating the two persons to know how they entered the country without obtaining entry visas.'

The ministry said that the two journalists would be handed over to the US embassy in Damascus 'after completing all necessary measures.'

Sources in the US embassy in Syria said that they are cooperating with the Syrian government to assure that the two US citizens are the missing journalists.

The embassy sources refused to give further details for security reasons, noting that they contacted the Syrian government as soon as they knew about the journalists' intentions to come to Syria.

Chmela and Luck were last seen October 1 when they reportedly departed Beirut en route to Byblos and Tripoli.

They had been expected back at work October 4.

A source from the Lebanese judicial authorities told