Libya Says It Will Free Missing New York Times Journalists Today

Four New York Times journalists missing in Libya since Tuesday will be released Friday, the U.S. State Department said it has been told by Libyan officials.

Also, Moammar Gadhafi's son, Seif Islam Gadhafi, confirmed to ABC News' Christiane Amanpour Thursday night that one of the four, photographer Lynsey Addario, would be freed.

The New York Times identified the journalists as Anthony Shadid, the Times' Beirut bureau chief and a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent; two photographers, Tyler Hicks and Addario, who have extensive experience in war zones; and a reporter and videographer, Stephen Farrell, who in 2009 was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan and was rescued by British commandos.

"We're all, families and friends, overjoyed to know they are safe," said Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times. "We are eager to have them free and back home."

The Times said the Libyan government allowed the journalists to call their families on Thursday evening.

They had been held by forces loyal to Gadhafi in the city of Ajdabiya after the military liberated the city from the rebels, Seif Islam Gadhafi said.

According to the Times' transcript of Amanpour's interview Gadhafi's son, he said: "They entered the country illegally and when the army, when they liberated the city of Ajdabiya from the terrorists and they found (Lynsey Addario) they arrest her because you know, foreigners in this place. But then they were happy because they found out she is American, not European. And thanks to that, she will be free tomorrow."