AT the peak of the Syrian civil conflict, US Marine Corps veteran and award-winning journalist Austin Tice was kidnapped simply miles from the protection of the Lebanese border.
Austin, then a regulation scholar, had spent the summer time within the war-torn nation documenting the horrors of Bashar Al-Assad’s brutal crackdown. Now, 14 years later, the destiny of the longest captive American journalist in historical past continues to puzzle investigators.
He vanished three days after his birthday, on August 13, 2012.
Austin had entered Syria in Could and travelled by means of rebel-held areas, freelancing for The Washington Submit and McClatchy.
Chilling paperwork recovered after the autumn of Assad’s regime reveal that he was being tracked all the way in which.
By August, he was on the brink of go away the Syrian capital, Damascus, and journey to Lebanon.
LIVING IN EXILE
Assad ‘poisoned whereas below Putin’s safety in Moscow’, report claims
TYRANT’S TROOPS
Dozens killed in Syria as troopers nonetheless loyal to Assad ‘ambush new military’
Whereas passing by means of a checkpoint close to Darayya, a southwestern suburb of the town, he vanished.
Then, after round seven weeks of silence, a distressing video emerged with the title “Austin Tice is Alive”.
It confirmed the journalist blindfolded, sure by the hands, and being led up a rocky hillside by his armed, masked captors who shout “Allahu Akbar”.
A visibly distressed Austin is then compelled to recite an Islamic prayer in Arabic.
It’s the last-known recording of Austin, who would have turned 44-years-old on Tuesday.
A large worldwide effort to safe his launch has adopted within the years since, however has led to way more questions than solutions.
For years, the identities of Austin’s captors remained one of many central unanswered questions.
The mysterious video launched by his captors appears to recommend that they had been Islamic militants, given the non secular garb, mountainous geography, and repeated refrains of “Allahu Akbar”.
However US intelligence got here to imagine that the video had been staged to throw them off the scent.
Analysts famous that the captors wore clothes harking back to militants in Afghanistan quite than these working in Syria on the time.
Elizabeth O’Bagy, an analyst on the Institute for the Research of Battle, informed CBS that the prayers felt compelled and appeared to imitate – “in a really poor method” – these heard in video clips of Afghan fighters.
The clip additionally appeared on the Fb web page of Assad’s supporters, quite than being routed by means of the usual jihadist channels.
Some of the extraordinary revelations in recent times is that the journalist might have briefly escaped.
US officers declare that he managed to interrupt out of a hellish Syrian jail shortly after his abduction, earlier than being recaptured by Assad’s henchmen.
Courageous Austin reportedly ran by means of the streets of Damascus in torn clothes after his unbelievable escape.
Locals within the Mezzeh space, near the place he was kidnapped, noticed a mysterious man wandering the streets.
Syrian officers launched an inner monitoring bulletin with Austin’s picture saying that he was at massive.
Nevertheless, he then sought assist on the dwelling of a regime figurehead, a senior Syrian official stated.
In a unprecedented stroke of dangerous luck, Austin is claimed to have knocked on the door of Ali Mamlouk, Assad’s prime spook.
He was reportedly swiftly recaptured.
After the autumn of Assad’s regime on December 8, 2024, reporters from the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ) discovered prime secret intelligence recordsdata.
Bombshell paperwork dated March 4, 2013, reveal that Assad’s safety providers had been meticulously monitoring international journalists coming into the nation and masking the civil conflict.
Austin Tice is known as within the file, which means that he was nonetheless alive on the time, however there are not any particulars of his whereabouts.
His entry reportedly reads: “He entered Syria illegally on the Turkish border in mid-June and he spent a number of days in Khan Shaikhoun the place he met people who name themselves the Free Military.”
Reviews about Austin’s situation within the years since 2012 have been scarce.
Some of the current accounts got here from a former prisoner interviewed by SIRAJ.
He claimed that he was detained by Syrian spooks in 2018 and held in a cell subsequent to a person who guards would consult with as Austin.
The unnamed man stated that he didn’t know who the journalist was on the time.
However he recalled that guards would convey an English translator to talk to the prisoner.
He stated: “The translator would ask him, “Austin, what do you wish to eat at present?’ I might hear the translator speaking to Austin immediately, as a result of I used to be near his cell.”
The story has not been confirmed by official sources, but when true, it will imply he was alive at the least six years after his seize.
Final 12 months, a high-ranking basic below Assad made the bombshell declare that Austin had been killed again in 2013.
Bassam al-Hassan informed CNN: “After all, Austin is lifeless,” and claimed that the dictator had personally ordered his execution.
He continued: “I don’t wish to shield Bashar al-Assad as a result of he deserted and left us.
“I don’t wish to shield Russia or Iran, as a result of the US thinks Russia and Iran have one thing to do with the case.
“And I can guarantee you that this isn’t the case. This pertains to President Bashar solely.”
Hassan claimed that he personally handed on the execution order to a member of the Nationwide Protection Forces (NDF).
Nevertheless his claims stay unverified, and CNN reported that the previous basic failed an FBI-administered polygraph take a look at, and that his account diverges from a number of others.
Sara Qudah, Regional Director of The Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ), stated: “Reviews that journalist Austin Tice was executed in 2013 are horrifying and demand quick solutions.
“Tice’s household has endured greater than a decade of insufferable grief and ambiguous loss.
“CPJ urges United States and Syrian authorities to interrupt their silence, disclose the complete fact, and eventually present closure. Accountability can’t be delayed any longer.”
When Assad’s regime was toppled, then-President Joe Biden stated the US believed Austin Tice was nonetheless alive and would attempt to convey him dwelling.
He stated: “We’re conscious that there are People in Syria, together with those that reside there, in addition to Austin Tice, who was taken captive greater than 12 years in the past.
“We stay dedicated to returning him to his household.
“We imagine he’s alive. We expect we will get him again, however we’ve got no direct proof of that but. We have now to determine the place he’s.”
Later that month, Biden’s prime hostage official Roger Carstens travelled to Damascus to make the primary face-to-face contact with the caretaker authorities and ask for assist finding Austin.
The Particular Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs stated he carried out a joint search of a facility with the insurgent group that overthrew Assad “that all of us thought would have some relation to Austin Tice”.
Carstens informed CBS: “We had quite a lot of info during the last 12 years that pointed to a wide range of amenities.
“And in [narrowing] that down over 12 years, we got here up with a precedence checklist of about six websites.
“And of these six websites, we felt that this had the very best chance of getting held Austin at one time.”
Carstens admitted he was surprised by the sheer variety of prisons that Assad had been working.
He stated: “I imply, you’d virtually suppose that in the event you had been working a rustic, and also you wished to jail your enemies, you’d have one jail, and it wouldn’t be secret.
“However to have like 35 or 40 secret prisons, I discover that simply horrifying, disturbing, and but in a means fascinating.”
The diplomatic mission would in the end return with out definitive proof that Austin remains to be alive.
Regardless of the so-far unsuccessful makes an attempt to trace him down, Austin’s household imagine that he could also be within the arms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
All through the civil conflict, Tehran supplied billions of {dollars} and proxy militias to assist prop up the Assad regime.
The IRGC additionally arrange, supervised and managed secret prisons throughout Syria throughout the civil conflict.
Naomi Tice, one in every of Austin’s sisters, stated that the household has info that he might need been held in one of many amenities and transferred to Iran when Assad was toppled.
She stated: “Assad constantly stated that he didn’t have Austin, and he has actually held sturdy on that message.
“We additionally know that Iran manages among the detention amenities in Syria.
“And so, that technicality could possibly be one of many the reason why Assad stated that he didn’t have them as a result of Iran was technically answerable for them on the time.”
“With the regime change, we do suppose, at that time, Austin might need been introduced over to Iran throughout that point.
“As soon as once more, this isn’t confirmed, however we’ve got sturdy purpose to imagine that could be the case.”
The household has urged Donald Trump‘s administration to ask for details about Austin’s whereabouts as a part of negotiations to convey an finish to the conflict.
Assad, who was lately sentenced to loss of life in absentia, is presently exiled in Moscow.
The Tice household has urged Washington to place stress on Vladimir Putin in order that the deposed dictator might be questioned by US investigators.
However 14 years on, there stays restricted details about the lacking journalist.
