US NGO claims journalist Austin Tice, missing since 2012, is alive in Syria | World News

The US International Hostage Assistance Organization said on Tuesday that it believes journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, is still alive, but did not provide specific information about his whereabouts.

“We have data that Austin is alive until January 2024, but the president of the United States said in August that he is alive, and we are certain that he is alive today,” said Nizar Zakka of Hostage Aid Worldwide.

“We try to be as transparent as possible and share as much information as possible.”

At a press conference in Damascus, Zakka showed a photo that he said indicated the locations where Tice was detained from November 2017 to February 2024.

Hostage Aid Worldwide says it is working with the Tice family and US authorities.

Tice, 43, worked for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS, and other media outlets in Syria.

He disappeared near Damascus in August 2012.

The authorities during the era of ousted President Bashar al-Assad never said that they detained him.

Tice’s mother, Debra, said earlier this month that she had information that her son was alive, while the new Syrian leadership said it was looking for him.

Global Hostage Assistance also said it believes senior cleric Youhanna Ibrahim, a dual Syrian-American citizen, is being held by Assad’s government.

The group did not clarify whether it believed Ibrahim was still alive.

“He is an American citizen,” Zakka said, adding that Ibrahim “was seen in 2018 in Branch 291” of the security forces.

A senior cleric of the Syriac Orthodox Church was kidnapped in Aleppo in April 2013.

The Assad government claimed that Ibrahim was kidnapped by jihadists.