By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The mom of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive throughout a reporting journey to Syria in August 2012, voiced hope on Sunday that upheaval in Syria will result in freedom for her son.
Debra Tice mentioned information that Missouri resident Travis Timmerman had been free of a Syrian jail by rebels felt “like a rehearsal.” Her youngsters woke her up when pictures of Timmerman started circulating on social media misidentifying him as Tice.
Requested if Timmerman’s misidentification was a second of false hope, Debra Tice as an alternative characterised it as a second of pleasure to be shared. Timmerman has mentioned he had traveled into Syria for a non secular mission earlier this yr and was arrested for coming into the nation illegally.
“It was almost like having a rehearsal … an inkling of what it’s really going to feel like when it is Austin walking free,” she advised NBC tv’s “Meet the Press”.
Tice is the main focus of an enormous search following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad final week after 13 years of civil battle. Rebels, led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have launched 1000’s of individuals from prisons in Damascus the place Assad held political opponents, atypical civilians and foreigners.
Per week after Assad’s ouster, some U.S. officers worry that Tice might have been killed throughout a latest spherical of Israeli airstrikes. Officers are additionally involved that if Tice was being held underground in a cell, he could have run out of breathable air as Assad’s forces shut off the electrical energy in lots of the prisons in Damascus earlier than the president fled.
Requested whether or not the U.S. authorities must be searching for Tice on the bottom in Syria, Debra Tice was cautious, expressing gratitude for efforts by journalists and different civilians on the bottom looking for him, together with from the group Hostage Assist Worldwide.
“The U.S. government has made the decision that they’re not going into Damascus. So, my feeling is, if they don’t want to be there, they shouldn’t be there. And the people that are there are the people that are determined,” she mentioned.
Tice, who labored as a contract reporter for the Washington Submit and McClatchy, was one of many first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil battle.
In August 2012, throughout combating in Aleppo, he was taken captive.
Weeks later, a YouTube video was printed exhibiting Tice blindfolded, palms tied behind his again. He was led up a hill by armed males in what gave the impression to be Afghan garb and shouting “God is great” in an obvious bid accountable Islamist rebels for his seize, though the video solely gained consideration when it was posted on a Fb (NASDAQ:) web page related to Assad supporters.
On Friday, Reuters was first to report that in 2013 Tice, a former Marine, managed to slide out of his cell and was seen transferring between homes within the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.
