The mom of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive throughout a reporting journey to Syria in August 2012, voiced hope on Sunday that upheaval in Syria will result in freedom for her son.
Debra Tice mentioned information that Missouri resident Travis Timmerman had been free of a Syrian jail by rebels felt “like a rehearsal.” Her kids woke her up when pictures of Timmerman started circulating on social media misidentifying him as Tice.
Requested if Timmerman’s misidentification was a second of false hope, Debra Tice as a substitute characterised it as a second of pleasure to be shared. Timmerman has mentioned he had traveled into Syria for a non secular mission earlier this 12 months and was arrested for coming into the nation illegally.
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Austin Tice, who labored as a contract reporter for the Washington Submit and McClatchy, was taken captive throughout a reporting journey to Syria in 2012. His mom (pictured) voiced hope Sunday that Syria’s upheaval will result in her son’s freedom. (Evelyn Hockstein)
“It was virtually like having a rehearsal … an inkling of what it is actually going to really feel like when it’s Austin strolling free,” she informed NBC tv’s “Meet the Press”.
Tice is the main focus of an enormous search following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad final week after 13 years of civil warfare. Rebels, led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have launched 1000’s of individuals from prisons in Damascus the place Assad held political opponents, atypical civilians and foreigners.
Per week after Assad’s ouster, some U.S. officers worry that Tice may have been killed throughout a latest spherical of Israeli airstrikes. Officers are additionally involved that if Tice was being held underground in a cell, he might have run out of breathable air as Assad’s forces shut off the electrical energy in most of the prisons in Damascus earlier than the president fled.  Â
Debra Tice mentioned the information of Travis Timmerman’s latest jail launch from Syria has given her newfound hope that her son Austin Tice will stroll free. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name)
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Requested whether or not the U.S. authorities must be in search of Tice on the bottom in Syria, Debra Tice was cautious, expressing gratitude for efforts by journalists and different civilians on the bottom looking for him, together with from the group Hostage Support Worldwide.
“The U.S. authorities has made the choice that they don’t seem to be going into Damascus. So, my feeling is, if they do not need to be there, they should not be there. And the folks which are there are the folks which are decided,” she mentioned.
Tice, who labored as a contract reporter for the Washington Submit and McClatchy, was one of many first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil warfare.
Debra Tice holds a information convention on the Nationwide Press Membership in Washington on Could 2, 2023. (Evelyn Hockstein)
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In August 2012, throughout preventing in Aleppo, he was taken captive.
Weeks later, a YouTube video was printed exhibiting Tice blindfolded, fingers tied behind his again. He was led up a hill by armed males in what seemed to be Afghan garb and shouting “God is nice” in an obvious bid in charge Islamist rebels for his seize, though the video solely gained consideration when it was posted on a Fb web page related to Assad supporters.
On Friday, Reuters was first to report that in 2013 Tice, a former Marine, managed to slide out of his cell and was seen shifting between homes within the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.
