Head of hostage NGO believes US journalist Austin Tice still in Syria

The head of an American organization focused on hostage releases said on Monday he believes U.S. journalist Austin Tice was still being held in Syria by people loyal to toppled leader Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to Reuters in Damascus, Nizar Zakka said he believed Tice was being held by "very few people in a safe house in order to do an exchange or a deal."

Zakka, a Lebanese businessman who was held in Iran for four years until 2019 on charges of spying, later became a U.S. citizen. He is the president of Hostage Aid Worldwide.

Zakka said his group's own investigation had revealed Tice was still in Syria, and that "a lot of progress" had been made in his hunt in recent weeks. But he added that Syria's new rulers, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), had not provided much assistance.

"We were hoping that HTS would help us more, but unfortunately HTS did not help us because they had their own concerns," he said.

Zakka said he had no information on Tice's precise location but suspected that a deal, possibly involving pressure from Assad's ally Russia, could see the American journalist released.




Reuters