Austin Tice’s mother sees hope for his release as Syria frees another American By Reuters

Author: Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The mother of U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who was captured while reporting in Syria in August 2012, expressed hope on Sunday that the upheaval in Syria would lead to her son’s freedom.

Debra Tice said the news that rebels had freed Missouri resident Travis Timmerman from a Syrian prison felt like a “rehearsal.” Her children woke her up when pictures of Timmerman started circulating on social media and misidentified him as Tisa.

Asked if Timmerman’s misidentification was a moment of false hope, Debra Tice instead characterized it as a moment of joy to be shared. Timmerman said he traveled to Syria earlier this year on a spiritual mission and was arrested for entering the country illegally.

“It was almost like having a rehearsal … a hint of what it’s really going to feel like when Austin is walking around freely,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Tice is the focus of a massive manhunt following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week after 13 years of civil war. The rebels, led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, freed thousands of people from prisons in Damascus where Assad held political opponents, ordinary civilians and foreigners.

A week after Assad’s ouster, some US officials fear Tice may have been killed during a recent round of Israeli airstrikes. Officials are also concerned that Tice, if held underground in a cell, may have been deprived of air to breathe because Assad’s forces cut off electricity in many prisons in Damascus before the president escaped.

When asked whether the US government should be looking for Tice on the ground in Syria, Debra Tice was cautious, expressing appreciation for the efforts of journalists and other civilians on the ground to find him.

“The US government has made a decision not to go to Damascus.” So I think if they don’t want to be there, they shouldn’t be there. And the people who are there are people who are determined,” she said.

Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first American journalists to arrive in Syria after the civil war broke out.

In August 2012, during the fighting in Aleppo, captured.

Weeks later, a video was posted on YouTube showing Tice blindfolded, hands tied behind his back. He was led up the hill by armed men wearing what appeared to be Afghan uniforms and shouting “God is great” in an apparent attempt to blame Islamist insurgents for his arrest, although the video only gained attention when it was posted on the Facebook (NASDAK 🙂 page linked to Assad’s supporters.

On Friday, Reuters first reported that in 2013 Tice, a former marine, managed to sneak out of his cell and was seen moving between houses in the streets of Damascus’ upscale Maze neighborhood.