Syria confirms detention of missing US journalists (2nd Roundup)

Oct 9, 2008, 16:47 GMT

Damascus/Washington - Syria confirmed on Thursday that two US journalists, who had been reported missing, were detained while trying to enter the country illegally with smugglers.

A Foreign Ministry official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the journalists were arrested near Lebanon's northern border with Syria.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement to the official SANA news agency, that the two detainees were Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23. They are employed by the Jordan Times and live in Amman.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Syrian officials informed the United States that the journalists were in custody and were safe. He added the US embassy was seeking access to them and would seek their release.

'We're going to try to get them back to either with their families or back to their home base as soon as possible,' McCormack said.

Chmela and Luck were reported missing Wednesday after they failed to return from a vacation in Lebanon. They had apparently told friends of plans to also travel to Aleppo, Syria.

Syrian authorities said the journalists were being interrogated to determine how they entered the country without obtaining visas and that the US charge d'affaires at the embassy in Damascus had been summoned, the Foreign Ministry statement carried by SANA read.

Chmela and Luck will be transferred to US officials 'after completing all necessary measures,' the statement said.

US embassy officials in Syria said that they are cooperating with the Syrian government to assure that the two Americans were 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 the northern cities Byblos and Tripoli. They had been expected back in Amman October 4.

A source from the Lebanese judicial authorities told