LONDON — The U.S. is speaking with insurgent teams inside Syria amid the seek for lacking American journalist Austin Tice, State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned Tuesday, because the prisons of former President Bashar Assad empty and extra proof of alleged atrocities emerges.
Miller instructed journalists at a Tuesday briefing, “We do proceed to imagine that he’s alive and we proceed to clarify in all of our conversations, both with entities on the bottom in Syria or with entities that could be in communication with these on the bottom in Syria, that we have now no greater precedence than the secure return of Austin Tice to his household.”
The U.S. has expressed its want to seek out Tice to the lead Syrian insurgent group now guiding the transition of energy in Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, actual identify Ahmed Al-Sharaa — Miller mentioned.
“It’s a message that we have now despatched to HTS,” Miller instructed reporters. The group has its roots in Al-Qaeda and is a delegated terrorist group within the U.S. and the European Union. Jolani himself remains to be the topic of a $10 million U.S. bounty.
This file photograph exhibits U.S. journalist Austin Tice who went lacking in Syria in 2012.
Fort Value Star-Telegram/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photographs
“We’ve got despatched very clearly the message that as they transfer by Syria liberating prisons, that our prime precedence is the return of Austin Tice,” Miller continued. “We wish anybody who is working on the bottom in Syria to be looking out for him and in that case — in the event that they do discover him, to assist return him to us safely and as quickly as attainable.”
Tice went lacking whereas reporting in Syria in 2012. The journalist is believed to have been kidnapped at a checkpoint in a contested space west of Damascus. His whereabouts and the identification of his abductors is unknown, although U.S. officers have beforehand mentioned they imagine Tice was being held by Syrian authorities forces.
The collapse of the Assad regime raised hopes that Tice could be discovered. “We imagine he is alive,” President Joe Biden mentioned on Sunday. “We expect we are able to get him again, however we have now no direct proof of that but.”
On Monday, the State Division elevated its reward for data on Tice to $10 million. The State Division additionally provided relocation for anybody that helps data that helps discover and get better Tice.
Roger Carstens, the particular presidential envoy for hostage affairs, additionally traveled to the Center East to carry talks with regional officers to “get him house as quickly as attainable,” Miller mentioned on Monday.
Marc Tice (L) and Debra Tice (R) — the dad and mom of Austin Tice, a journalist who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 — are pictured throughout a information convention on the Nationwide Press Membership in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 6, 2024.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Debra and Marc Tice — Austin’s dad and mom — launched a press release urging “anybody who can accomplish that to please help Austin so he can safely return house to our household” following the collapse of the Assad authorities.
“We’re watching the occasions unfold in Syria and seeing households reunited with their family members after years of separation,” mentioned a press release launched by way of the Press Freedom Middle on the Nationwide Press Membership.
“We all know that is attainable for our household, too,” they added. “Austin Tice is alive, in Syria, and it is time for him to come back house. We’re eagerly anticipating seeing Austin stroll free.”
Tice is likely one of the 157,000 folks disappeared into the bowels of Assad’s totalitarian state between 2011 and 2024, per an estimate by the Syrian Community for Human Rights.
This aerial photograph exhibits folks gathering on the Saydnaya jail in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 9, 2024.
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Insurgent fighters surging south from Idlib and north from Daraa emptied authorities prisons as they superior on Damascus on the shut of an 11-day shock offensive.
There, the notorious Saydnaya jail — as soon as described because the “Human Slaughterhouse” by Amnesty Worldwide — turned a rallying level for the hopeful household and pals of the lacking.
Insurgent fighters and Damascenes rushed by the ability, releasing teams of males, girls and youngsters from cells.
The Syrian Civil Defence, also referred to as the White Helmets, mentioned that rumors of hidden underground cells proved unfounded. However rescuers mentioned they discovered proof of the regime’s huge torture equipment in addition to the our bodies of those that didn’t stay to see its fall.
Amongst them was famed anti-government activist Mazen Al-Hamada, who had been held in Saydnaya since February 2020.
Syrian opposition fighters sit for ice cream within the outdated a part of Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 10, 2024.
Louai Beshara/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
ABC Information’ Dee Carden and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
