Spanish national television network TVE said that the missing journalists were on a joint investigative reporting assignment, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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A Spanish journalism association first reported on Tuesday that the three – identified as Antoniu Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre – were missing since July 13. Sastre, a TV correspondent, Pampliega, a reporter, and López, a photojournalist, had entered Syria a few days before they went missing, according to reports.
Three Spanish journalists have gone missing in Syria where they were reporting from the Aleppo region, the president of a Spanish press federation said.
Elsa Gonzalez, president of FAPE, reportedly said that Spanish government authorities informed her about the situation, adding: “They can not yet conclude that they have been kidnapped”.
In 2013 three other Spanish journalists were seized by Daesh.
“The spate of abductions and killings of journalists that we’ve seen over the last couple of years, particularly in the Middle East, has been horrific and demands some kind of action on the part of all of us in the news industry”, he said.
Aleppo is now carved up between government forces controlling much of the west and rebel groups in control of the east.
Friends of a Japanese journalist, Junpei Yasuda, have been quoted by media as saying they have not heard from him since late June, and believe him to be in Syria.
The group also has generated cash through holding European journalists for ransom. It’s not clear how many foreign and local journalists remain held in Syria, though the number likely is in the dozens.
A missile fired by Syrian forces killed at least 18 civilians on Tuesday in a residential neighbourhood of the old quarter of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.
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More than 35 homes were destroyed, the Observatory said. Syria’s conflict, which began in 2011 with anti-government protests, has degenerated into a civil war that has killed more than 230,000 people and displaced millions.
