Austin Tice's mother in Damascus hopes to find son missing since 2012

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to step up the search for her son and said she hopes she can take him home with her.

Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil war.

His mother, Debra Tice, drove into the Syrian capital from Lebanon with Nizar Zakka, the head of Hostage Aid Worldwide, an organization which is searching for Austin and believes he is still in Syria.

"It'd be lovely to put my arms around Austin while I'm here. It'd be the best," Debra Tice told Reuters in the Syrian capital, which she last visited in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about her son, before they stopped granting her visas.

"I feel very strongly that Austin's here, and I think he knows I'm here... I'm here," she said.

"I am hoping to get some answers. And of course, you know, we have inauguration on Monday, and I think that should be a huge change," she said.

"I know that President Trump is quite a negotiator, so I have a lot of confidence there. But now we have an unknown on this (Syrian) side. It's difficult to know, if those that are coming in even have the information about him," she said.



Reuters