Activists say pro-Syrian regime journalist released

Syrian activists and family members of a pro-government journalist say he's been released after being detained and held incommunicado for eight months.

The brother of Wissam al-Teer thanked Syria's President Bashar Assad in a Facebook post Saturday for the release, in apparent reference to a presidential amnesty.

The Syrian government, embroiled in a civil war for eight years, is intolerant of criticism and its prisons are brimming with detainees, many of them held incommunicado for years. But it is rare for a pro-government journalist to be detained.

Al-Teer manages the popular Damascus Now page on Facebook, which reports news from government-held areas. Activists had reported that security agents arrested al-Teer and another journalist in a raid in December, but there was no official comment. The colleague was later released.

AP