BFF-01 US believes missing journalist Tice still alive after six years

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US-SYRIA-CONFLICT-MEDIA

US believes missing journalist Tice still alive after six years

WASHINGTON, Aug 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump’s
administration believes missing US journalist Austin Tice is still alive, six
years after he is thought to have been taken captive in Syria.

“We believe him to be alive,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert
said on the sixth anniversary of his disappearance. “We remain deeply
concerned about his well-being, and we are actively working to bring Austin
Tice home.”

Nauert declined to provide information on how the United States has
reached that conclusion or where he is being held, and by whom.

Tice was a 31-year-old freelance photojournalist working for AFP,
McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS, and other news organizations when
he was detained at a checkpoint near Damascus on August 14, 2012.

A former marine, he appeared blindfolded in the custody of an unidentified
group of armed men in a video a month later.

Since then, there has been no official information on whether he is alive
or dead.

Earlier this year, the US government announced a reward of $1 million for
information about Tice.

Speaking to the Washington Post, his parents said they hoped the Trump
administration would open direct talks with the Syrian government to secure
his release.

“We really do believe that this administration has a greater commitment to
bring people home,” his mother Debra Tice said.

With US-Syria relations broken off, Nauert declined to answer directly
when asked if direct talks with Damascus on Tice were possible.

“I can assure you that we’re doing everything that we can to try to bring
him home,” she said.

BSS/AFP/FI/ 9748 hrs