Award-Winning NBC News Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel Missing In Syria Since Last Thursday

I hope he is found safe …

Update: Engel has been released by a Shia Islamist group in Syria loyal to Assad / Hezbollah  …

By DAVID MCCORMACK, Mail Online – “NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, one of the most prominent and accomplished international correspondents in the world, is reportedly missing in Syria.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports that Engel, together with Turkish journalist Aziz Akyavaş, were last known to be in Syria and haven’t been in contact with NBC News since Thursday morning.

While the Turkish media have been circulating the report for several days, American outlets had been operating under a news blackout requested by NBC until today.

NBC colleague David Schuster is amongst those to have tweeted their concern about the missing journalist and author.

Engels, who is divorced and doesn’t have children, was promoted to NBC News’s chief foreign correspondent in 2008. He runs NBC’s Middle East bureau and has been reporting on the ongoing conflict between rebels and forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He last reported from inside Syria on December 11. He is also known as a regular Twitter user, but hasn’t tweeted since Dec 1.

Engel is widely regarded for his coverage of wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 15 years.

Most recently, he was recognized for his outstanding reporting on the 2011 revolution in Egypt, the conflict in Libya and unrest throughout the Arab world.” Read more.

Flashback: NBC’s Engel ‘Worried’ About ‘Ferociously Anti-Israel’ Arab Street and Concludes ‘This Thing Ends in Jerusalem’