American journalist Austin Tice is alive and in Syria greater than a decade after his disappearance, his household says.
Tice went lacking in 2012 a number of days after celebrating his thirty first birthday within the nation, the place he went to report on the civil conflict that started in 2011. Video surfaced shortly after his disappearance exhibiting him being held at gunpoint by masked males. The U.S. authorities solid doubt on whether or not the video was genuine and advised it could have been staged.
The State Department contended that Tice was being held by the Syrian government. Former President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities vehemently denied the accusation.
With Assad’s regime now toppled, Tice’s household has renewed hope that the Houston native might lastly return house.
Siblings Meagan Tice Malone and Simon Robert Tice on Monday advised MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that the household has dependable info that their brother is alive however couldn’t share how they know.
“We have had impartial and verified affirmation,” Malone mentioned. “It’s been verified in lots of branches of the [U.S. government], that solely helps what President Biden has mentioned a number of occasions now.”
The siblings described their brother, a former Marine, as an clever and compassionate man who felt an obligation to go to Syria and report on the civil conflict. Simon Robert was solely 19 when his older brother went lacking, he mentioned.
“We have a robust religion within the American authorities, and we had been all raised with a religion within the American authorities,” Simon Robert Tice mentioned. “And we imagine so long as he’s not house, there’s all the time extra to be finished.”
President Joe Biden addressed the general public on Sunday and expressed hope that the journalist, now 43, would come house.
“We assume we are able to get him again, however we have now no direct proof of that but,” Biden mentioned.
U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens is in Beirut, Lebanon, as a part of efforts to carry Austin Tice house, a U.S. official with direct information advised NBC News. The official added that the federal government is reaching out to anybody in Syria or the area who may also help.
This is a time of alternative for folks in Syria and other people like Austin Tice who went lacking, White House nationwide safety communications adviser John Kirby mentioned Monday on MSNBC
“That’s nonetheless the assumptions we’re working beneath — is that he’s nonetheless alive,” Kirby advised Andrea Mitchell. “But the reality is we wish to get extra details about him, about his whereabouts, definitely in regards to the circumstances which he which he could also be held.”
Hadi al-Bahra, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, advised NBC News on Sunday that the transitional authorities would make it a precedence to research the whereabouts of those that disappeared beneath the Assad regime.
The Tice siblings are hopeful that they’ll see their brother introduced house, filling a void that has dramatically altered the way in which they’re all capable of stay their lives.
“The solely factor we are able to say is that we’re interesting to anybody that has the authority and the flexibility to reunite our household … and that the appropriate folks will do the appropriate factor and produce him house to us,” Malone mentioned.
