WASHINGTON – In newly disclosed details, American journalist Austin Tice managed to escape captivity in early 2013 after being held for over five months in a Damascus prison. Tice, who was abducted during a reporting trip in August 2012, was spotted in the upscale Mazzeh neighborhood seeking help, according to U.S. officials and a source familiar with the incident.
The revelations come as Syrian rebels, led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, ousted President Bashar al-Assad this week after 13 years of civil war, sparking renewed efforts to locate Tice and thousands of others previously held in Assad’s infamous prison network.
According to U.S. officials, Tice’s 2013 escape provides the strongest evidence that he was detained by Assad loyalists, fueling years of U.S. diplomatic pressure on the regime. Officials believe Tice was recaptured shortly after entering the home of a well-known Syrian family in Mazzeh. He was likely moved between various Assad-controlled intelligence agencies in the following years.
In 2016, a tip suggested Tice was taken to a Damascus hospital for treatment, but U.S. officials say the 2013 sighting remains the most credible evidence of his status.
Despite over a decade of searching, Tice’s whereabouts remain unknown. President Joe Biden expressed cautious optimism on Dec. 8, saying, “We believe he’s alive. We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet.”
Tice, a freelance journalist for The Washington Post and McClatchy, was among the first U.S. reporters to enter Syria’s civil war zone. A video released weeks after his capture showed him blindfolded, with armed men staging the scene to implicate Islamist rebels. The footage, later associated with Assad supporters, added to the mystery surrounding his abduction.
Over the years, conflicting intelligence reports have pointed to various groups as his captors, including extremist factions and Assad’s government. Efforts to secure his release, including a 2019 trip by U.S. officials to Damascus, have so far yielded no breakthroughs.
Tice’s family, long critical of U.S. government efforts, is now in Washington, holding onto hope for his safe return in the wake of Assad’s fall. The CIA, FBI, and State Department declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.