LONDON — The US is communicating with rebel groups inside Syria amid the search for missing American journalist Austin Tice, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday that former President Bashar Assad’s prisons are empty and more evidence of alleged atrocities is emerging.
Miller told reporters in a Tuesday briefing: “We continue to believe that he is alive and we continue to make it clear in all our conversations, both with entities in Syria and with entities that may be in contact. In Syria, we have no higher priority than the safe return of Austin Tice to his family.”
The US has expressed its desire to find Tice to the main Syrian rebel group leading the transition of power in Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa — Miller said.
“It’s a message we sent to HTS,” Miller told reporters. The group has its roots in Al-Qaeda and is a designated terrorist organization in the US and the European Union. Jolani himself is still the subject of a US$10 million bounty.
This archive photo shows journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“We’ve sent a very clear message that as Syrian prisons continue to be freed, our top priority is the return of Austin Tice,” Miller continued. “We want whoever is operating on the ground in Syria to be looking for him, and if so, if they find him, to help him get back to us safely and as quickly as possible.”
Tice disappeared in 2012 while reporting in Syria. The journalist is believed to have been kidnapped in a disputed area west of Damascus. His whereabouts and the identity of his captors are unknown, although US officials have previously said Tice was being held by Syrian government forces.
The fall of the Assad regime raised hopes that Tice would be found. “We think he’s alive,” President Joe Biden said Sunday. “We think we can recover it, but we don’t have direct evidence of that yet.”
On Monday, the State Department increased the reward for information on Tice to $10 million. The State Department also offered relocation for anyone who helps find and recover Tice.
Roger Carstens, the president’s special envoy for hostage issues, also traveled to the Middle East for talks with regional authorities “to get him back home as soon as possible,” Miller said Monday.
Marc Tice (L) and Debra Tice (R) — the parents of Austin Tice, the journalist kidnapped in Syria in 2012 — are pictured at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington on Dec. 6. , 2024.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Debra and Marc Tice – Austin’s parents – released a statement saying “Anyone who can please help Austin get back safely to our family” after the fall of the Assad government.
“We are watching events unfold in Syria and we are watching families reunite with their loved ones after years of separation,” he said in a statement released through the Center for Press Freedom.
“We know that this is also possible for our family,” they added. “Austin Tice is alive, in Syria, and it’s time for him to come home. We look forward to Austin walking free.”
Tice is one of the 157,000 people who disappeared in the bowels of Assad’s totalitarian state between 2011 and 2024, according to estimates by the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
This aerial photo shows people gathering at Saydnaya prison in Damascus, Syria on December 9, 2024.
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images
Rebel fighters marching south from Idlib and north from Daraa emptied government prisons as they advanced on Damascus at the end of a surprise 11-day offensive.
There, the notorious Saydnaya prison — once described by Amnesty International as a “Human Slaughterhouse” — became a gathering place for the families and hopeful friends of the disappeared.
Rebel fighters and Damascenes swept through the facility, freeing groups of men, women and children from their cells.
The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said rumors of hidden underground cells were unfounded. But rescuers said they found evidence of the regime’s extensive torture apparatus, including the bodies of those who did not live to see its fall.
Among them was the prominent anti-government activist Mazen Al-Hamada, who had been detained in Saydnaya since February 2020.
Syrian opposition fighters sit and eat ice cream in the old city of Damascus, Syria, on December 10, 2024.
Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images
ABC News’ Dee Carden and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
