By Lydia Warren PUBLISHED: 08:56 EST, 18 December 2012 | UPDATED: 02:54 EST, 19 December 2012 NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has revealed how he thought he was going to be led outside and executed by Syrian captors who held him and his production team for five days. The prominent journalist, 39, was entering Syria from Turkey on Thursday with two crew members and their security guard when they were abducted, thrown into the back of a truck and blindfolded. They were taken to an unknown location and kept blindfolded and bound, but on Monday, they were released after a firefight with Syrian rebels at a checkpoint and have now re-entered Turkey.
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Richard Engel and three crew members disappeared on Thursday
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Released Monday after captors came across rebel checkpoint
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Men reveal how they worked together to get through terrifying ordeal
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They were 'captured by pro-government organisation, the Shabiha, who intended to exchange them with Iranian and Lebanese agents'
'We were told that they wanted to exchange us for four @placeholder agents and two Lebanese people.