US officials were pressing on Monday for information about Austin Tice and to secure the release of the American journalist captured in Syria 12 years ago.
Washington’s hostage-affairs envoy Roger Carstens was in Beirut as part of intensive efforts to locate Tice, according to the State Department, while White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said other officials were seeking information from people in Syria.
“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 told 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 US 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.
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