The fall of the Assad government in Syria is cause for cautious optimism in the case of Austin Tice, an American journalist held captive there, according to his mother Debra Tice.
“We hope that this is the day that we have been hoping and praying for,” Debra Tice told VOA on Sunday morning.
In remarks at the White House on Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden said, “We remain committed to returning him [Tice] to his family.”
“We believe he is alive. We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet,” Biden later added.
In response to a question about a potential rescue operation to retrieve Tice, Biden said the United States first must identify where he is located.
A Texas native and former U.S. Marine, Austin Tice has been held in Syria for more than 12 years. He was detained at a checkpoint in Damascus in August 2012, and aside from a brief video after his capture, little has been heard or seen of him since.
Syrian rebels, led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — which means Organization for Liberating Syria — declared that they had ousted President Bashar Assad after seizing control of the capital Damascus on Sunday. The move prompted Assad to flee, ending his family’s decades-long autocratic rule, including more than 13 years of civil war.
Over the past week, rebels took control of the major Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama, and finally the capital. In those cities, thousands of prisoners have been released from prisons run by the now-former Assad government.
Even Iran, which has long supported Assad’s government, started on Friday evacuating its military commanders and personnel, as well as some diplomatic staff, according to media reports.
Now that Damascus has been taken by rebels, there is hope that Tice will be among those released, his mother said.
Debra Tice confirmed to VOA that her son is being held in a prison in Damascus, citing a source vetted by the U.S. government.
“What we’re hoping is that as people that are coming into Damascus are opening the prisons, that, by the power of God, they’ll open the one that Austin’s in,” she said. “We’re already believing that the door is going to be open."
The Tice family made headlines on Friday when Debra, citing the same source, confirmed that her son was alive in Syria.
“Austin is alive and being treated well. And I, I can tell you he is waiting to come home,” Debra Tice told VOA Friday. “He is so ready. And he has known from the very first day that he was detained that he was going to walk free again.”
The family told VOA it could not share more details because the intelligence was classified.
The Syrian opposition plans to establish a commission to find Tice and others who disappeared under the Assad government, the coalition leader told NBC News.
“We need to investigate whether he was transferred to Iran or still in Syria because we heard some stories that at some period of time they didn’t feel secure so they may have transferred him to Iran,” said Hadi al-Bahra, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
Tice is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer who works for outlets that include The Washington Post, CBS and McClatchy. He is the longest-held American journalist abroad.
Bill McCarren, director of the Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club in Washington, agreed that the developments in Syria could be cause for optimism in Tice’s case.
“We’re hopeful as we’re seeing prisons opening across Syria,” McCarren told VOA on Sunday. “That is heartening and full of meaning.”
Still, McCarren cautioned that the uncertainty and potential for unrest in Syria presents a new set of risks.
“In these chaotic situations, there’s always a risk of danger, and that’s of concern,” McCarren said.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to VOA’s request for comment for this story.
Tice is one of five journalists detained in Syrian prisons, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
