A news crew from the U.S. network NBC has escaped captivity in Syria after five days. NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his production team were seized by a pro-government militia while traveling inside Syria last week. They were blindfolded and subjected to mock executions before ultimately being freed after their kidnappers lost a firefight at a rebel-controlled checkpoint. Shortly after crossing into Turkey, Engel described the ordeal.

Richard Engel: “We were with some gunmen, some rebels who were escorting us. They executed one of them on the spot. Then they took us to a series of safe houses and interrogation places, and they kept us blindfolded, bound. We weren’t physically beaten or tortured. It was a lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed. They made us choose which one of us would be shot first, and when we refused, there were mock shootings.”

There are at least seven other journalists currently missing in Syria, including U.S. reporter Austin Tice.