Two American journalists who were missing for more than a week were released by Syrian authorities and reportedly on their way home Thursday, after being detained while trying to sneak into the country with smugglers, Syrian and embassy officials said.

An undated handout photograph provided by the Jordan Times newspaper Oct. 9 shows U.S. citizens Holli Chmela (L) and Taylor Luck. The US embassy in Lebanon said on Wednesday that the two Americans were missing and appealed for information on their whereabouts. Reuters/Jordan Times/Handout

Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, hadn’t been heard from since Oct. 1 when they left Beirut. Luck is an editor with The Jordan Times in Amman, and Chmela was a freelancer for the newspaper, Sameer Barhoum, the publication’s editor said.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut launched a search Wednesday with Lebanese authorities after the two failed to return to Amman, Jordan, last weekend from a vacation in Lebanon. They worked for an English-language newspaper, the Jordan Times.

The two had last been heard from on Oct. 1, when they checked out of a Beirut hotel,

The US embassy in Lebanon said on Wednesday that they had had reportedly left Beirut headed for Byblos and Tripoli in northern Lebanon, from where they planned to cross into Syria before returning to Jordan.

The Syrian state news agency announced Thursday that the Americans had been detained for crossing into Syria “illegally, with the help of a smuggler,” and that they were being questioned. They were turned over to the United States Embassy in Syria a few hours later.

Syria has recently increased its military presence along the Lebanese border in what it says is a move to stop smuggling.

Syria boosted its troop presence along Lebanon’s northern border after a terrorist attack in Damascus in late September. Syrian authorities blame the attack on al-Qaida-inspired extremists based in north Lebanon.

Damascus said Wednesday that its troops along the border number in the hundreds, not thousands as Lebanon earlier said.

 Agencies
An undated handout photograph provided by the Jordan Times newspaper October 9, 2008, shows U.S. citizens Holli Chmela (L) and Taylor Luck. The U.S. embassy in Lebanon said on Wednesday that the two Americans were missing and appealed for information on their whereabouts.                   REUTERS/Jordan Times/Handout