DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s new leadership says it holds ousted President Bashar al-Assad responsible for the “pain inflicted” for years on the family of Austin Tice, as the search goes on for the American journalist who went missing in the country more than a decade ago while reporting on the Syrian civil war.
“We hold Bashar al-Assad and his criminal regime accountable for the consequences of Austin’s disappearance and the pain inflicted on his mother — pain, tears, and separation,” Obaida Al-Arnaot, official spokesperson and head of the political affairs department of Syria’s interim government, told NBC News in an interview Wednesday.
Arnaot said Syria’s interim government had tried to find Tice to reunite him with his family, but has so far had no luck locating the journalist, now 43.
“We tried as much as possible to find information about Austin and return him to his mother, but we have not reached any result,” he said.
It comes as a video emerged online overnight claiming to show a missing American alive in the town of Dhiyabia, just outside the Syrian capital Damascus, sparking speculation that it could be Tice. But a senior U.S. official told NBC news it was not Tice and a source close to Tice’s family said that they do not believe the video is their missing son.
The man in the video instead identified himself to NBC News as “Travis” from Missouri, declining to provide a last name before later identifying himself as Travis Timmerman, last seen in Budapest in May. He said he had crossed into Syria on foot before being detained and had been held in prison for months.
Tice, from Houston, went missing in 2012 just days after celebrating his 31st birthday in Syria, where he was reporting on the civil war that began a year earlier.
Video emerged shortly after his disappearance showing masked men holding him at gunpoint, but the U.S. government questioned the video’s authenticity, suggesting it was staged.
Instead, the State Department said Tice was believed to be in the custody of the Syrian government — a charge vehemently denied by the regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
In an interview in Damascus, Syrian journalist Saher al-Ahmad told NBC News he had seen Tice on two occasions while he himself was imprisonedat a facility in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district, though he said he did not speak with him.
The last time he saw Tice was in July 2022, Ahmad said, describing the Houston journalist as appearing to be in “somewhat good” condition.
However, he said, “he was thin when I saw him. His neck bones were slightly protruding, but he was able to walk and move because they allowed him and other prisoners to exercise and walk for one hour in the prison corridor.”
Generally, Ahmad said, the conditions foreign prisoners were held in were “excellent” compared to those endured by Syrian prisoners and he said Tice appeared to be held in a large cell alone.
With Assad overthrown by rebel forces, Tice’s family has expressed renewed hope that they’ll be reunited with their son.
In an interview with “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” Tice’s parents, Debra and Marc Tice, said they had received information that before the rebels ousted Assad’s government, their son was not only alive but being well cared for. However, they said they had no clarity about who was holding their son captive.
“We’re just waiting to see, because they’re attending to the prisons little by little — and some of the larger prisons, we know those are not places that Austin is,” Debra Tice said.
“We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet,” President Joe Biden said on Sunday, offering a sliver of hope.
Speaking at an Atlantic Council event in Washington on Wednesday, Jen Daskal, deputy assistant to the president and deputy Homeland Security advisor, said the Biden administration was open to talking to anyone who might have information about Tice.
Asked if the administration would be willing to work with Islamist rebel forces in Syria who recently toppled the Assad regime to secure the journalist’s freedom, Daskal said: “We are extremely focused on doing everything possible we can to locate Austin Tice, and are talking to anybody who is willing to talk to us, who might have information.”
The administration is “extraordinarily focused on that effort,” she said, but did not elaborate further.
Syria’s new rebel coalition is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a group that emerged from an Al Qaeda affiliate. HTS’ leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, was among those battling American forces in Iraq following their 2003 invasion, with the State Department holding a $10 million bounty for information about him.
In more recent years, Jolani has made efforts to project a more moderate image, including cutting ties with Al Qaeda and renouncing international extremism.
While Biden welcomed Assad’s ouster, he has also expressed caution at a “moment of risk and uncertainty as we all turn to the question of what comes next.”
Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow reported from Damascus, and Chantal Da Silva from London.
