The U.S. State Department has confirmed that an American freelance journalist was detained in Turkey nearly a month ago.
State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Lindsey Snell is being held at a prison in Turkey's Hatay province, which is located across the border from the Syrian cities of Idlib and Aleppo.
Kirby said Turkish authorities have told the U.S. that Snell crossed from Syria into Turkey and has been charged with "violating a military zone." He said he could not speak to why she was in Syria.
On August 8, the state-run Anadolu news agency quoted Hatay Governor Ercan Topaca as saying Snell was captured while trying to illegally cross into Turkey and that "we do not know if she is a spy or not."
A few days earlier, Snell posted on Facebook that she had been kidnapped in Syria by members of Jabhat al Nusra and held for 10 days before managing to escape.
