WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. officials are communicating with people on the ground in Syria to seek information about Austin Tice, an American journalist captured more than 12 years ago in Syria, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
“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,” Sullivan said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“”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.'”
Tice, a former U.S. Marine and a freelance journalist, was 31 when he was abducted in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted by Syrian rebels who seized the capital Damascus on Sunday. Syria had denied he was being held.
Assad fled to Russia after a 13-year civil war and six decades of his family’s autocratic rule.
President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the U.S. government believes Tice is alive.
“We believe he’s alive. We think we can get him back but we have no direct evidence to that yet. And Assad should be held accountable,” Biden said. “We have to identify where he is.”
Sullivan met Tice’s mother, Debra Tice, on Friday at the White House after she told journalists at the National Press Club that she believed her son was alive.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Heather Timmons and Timothy Heritage)
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