The Syrian government says it detained two American journalists who tried to sneak across the border from Lebanon with smugglers on Thursday. The US embassy in Beirut had raised the alarm and launched a search along with Lebanese authorities after Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, failed to return as expected over the weekend to Amman, Jordan, where they worked for the English-language Jordan Times.

It was not known why the two tried to cross the border. They were on vacation but may have sought to report on the widespread smuggling between Lebanon and Syria, particularly through back roads in remote parts of the north. But they appeared to have walked into a Syrian troop build-up deployed on the border weeks earlier to crack down on smuggling and Islamic militants that Damascus says also infiltrate Syria from that area.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry announced that Chmela and Luck would be handed over to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus following a completion of questioning over how they crossed the border. It did not say when they would be released.