A freed American journalist feared he was going to be killed in a chilling video posted by kidnappers just before his release.
Peter Theo Curtis, 45, was seated on the floor with his hands tied in front of him and a camouflage-wearing man man pointing an assault weapon at his head.
“They have given me three days to live,” said Curtis, who was released on Sunday after being held for two years by the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria.
“If you don’t do anything, I’m finished. I’m dead. They will kill me. Three days. You have had 20 days, and you’ve done nothing.”
Curtis, who wrote under the byline Theo Padnos, did not make any demands during the video. He only urged that Western governments to make contact with his captors.
The release came just days after terrorists murdered American photojournalist James Foley.
Curtis’ freedom appeared to have been brokered by tiny oil-rich Qatar, which has close ties to rebels seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
“Particularly after a week marked by unspeakable tragedy, we are all relieved and grateful knowing that Theo Curtis is coming home after so much time held in the clutches of [terrorists],” Secretary of State John Kerry said.