- Austin Tice was abducted while reporting from Syria in August 2012
U.S. officials are working with contacts inside Syria to try to find Austin Tice, an American journalist who was captured in the war-torn country 12 years ago, according to a top White House figure.
Hopes for his rescue faded over the years with no confirmed sightings.
But on Sunday, President Joe Biden said he believed the former U.S. Marine was still alive.
His national security adviser said on Monday that officials were working with people on the ground after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime.
‘This is a top priority for us … to find Austin Tice, to locate the prison where he may be held, get him out, get him home safely to his family,’ Jake Sullivan told ABC’s Good Morning America.
‘We have offered a reward to anyone who can provide information, and we are talking through the Turks and others, to people on the ground in Syria, to say, help us with this, help us get Austin Tice home.’
The FBI reissued its $1 million reward for information leading to his safe recovery and return.
Tice was 31 when he was abducted in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Assad, who was eventually ousted by Syrian rebels on Sunday.
Austin Tice, a former U.S. Marine and freelance journalist, was abducted while reporting on the civil war in Syria on Aug. 14, 2012
The FBI reissued its offer of a $1million reward for information leading to his safe return
Crowds descended on Sednaya Prison, where thousands of people were said to be detained and tortured by the Assad regime during the past decade
Syrian officials had always denied he was in their custody.
In a prepared speech about Syria on Sunday, Biden raised his case.
‘We are mindful that there are Americans in Syria, including those who reside there, as well as Austin Tice, who was taken captive more than 12 years ago.
‘We remain committed to returning him to his family,’ he said using language consistent with other officials who in the past have said they had no evidence he was still alive.
But moments later Biden went further in response to questions shouted by journalists.
‘We believe he’s alive,’ he said. ‘We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet.’
Meanwhile, Syrian prisoners are emptying of their political prisoners.
‘Austin Tice is alive, in Syria, and it’s time for him to come home,’ said his parents Marc and Debra Tice.
Trump’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said rescuing Tice was ‘a top priority’
‘We are eagerly anticipating seeing Austin walk free and we are asking anyone who can do so to please assist Austin so he can safely return home to our family.’
The Assad regime crumbled at the weekend as the armed Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed into the capital Damascus.
Assad was reported to have been granted political asylum by his allies in Moscow.
In the wake of his departure, crowds descended on Sednaya prison to find relatives missing since the early years of the civil war.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimated this year that 130,000 people were subject to arbitrary arrest or detention during the conflict.
