A Turkish photographer kidnapped while covering the civil war in neighboring Syria has returned home after being freed from weeks in captivity, his newspaper said on Monday.

A Turkish photographer kidnapped while covering the civil war in neighboring Syria has returned home after being freed from weeks in captivity, his newspaper said on Monday.

Bunyamin Aygun, who works for the newspaper Milliyet, was taken hostage by radical extremists in mid-December during a reporting mission in Syria.

He was freed on Sunday and entered Turkish territory accompanied by eight members of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Milliyet said.

"Every night, I had the same dream that I was being freed. I cannot believe that I am free now. It feels like a dream," he was quoted by the daily as saying.