American Tells of Odyssey as Prisoner of Syrian Rebels

Matthew Schrier, a photographer, says he was held for seven months by jihadi fighters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. After being robbed, tortured and accused of being an American spy, he escaped in July.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/world/middleeast/american-tells-of-odyssey-as-prisoner-of-syrian-rebels.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=1&pagewanted=all

For seven months, Matthew Schrier, 35, was a prisoner in Syria of jihadi fighters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Held in bases and prisons run by two Islamist rebel groups, he said, he was robbed, beaten and accused of being an American spy by men who then assumed his identity online.