Engel and his NBC crew were held captive for five days in Syria. (Flickr/The Rachel Maddow Show)

Engel said he believed his captors to be Shiite militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. He said the plan was to exchange the U.S. news team for prisoners held by the rebels.

The foreign correspondent said he and the crew were kept blindfolded and bound after the team was ambushed by a team of fifteen masked gunmen Thursday.

Engel and the crew were released late Monday night, after the captors ran into a rebel checkpoint. The captors were either killed in a firefight or fled, where the rebels then took the news team to safety.

NBC said they were not in contact with the captors nor did they receive any ransom requests.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal.

Reach Executive Producer Amanda Martinez here.