WASHINGTON — The United States knows “with certainty” that the Syrian government has held Austin Tice, a reporter and former U.S. Marine missing in Syria since 2012, and is asking for its help bringing him home, President Joe Biden said in a statement on Wednesday.
Tice disappeared in Syria in August 2012 — a decade ago this week — while covering the war as a freelance journalist for McClatchy, The Washington Post and other publications. U.S. officials believe he was detained at a Syrian government checkpoint southwest of Damascus on Aug. 14 of that year. A video emerged six weeks after his disappearance purporting to show him in captivity.
“We know with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime. We have repeatedly asked the government of Syria to work with us so that we can bring Austin home. On the tenth anniversary of his abduction, I am calling on Syria to end this and help us bring him home,” Biden said.
