Washington D.C. – Reuters, December 13, 2024
In the early days of 2013, an American man, dressed in ragged clothing, dodged between houses in the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood looking for a civilian to take him to safety after more than five months of captivity in the concrete cells of a local prison.
The man, journalist Austin Tice, was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012. A former Marine, he had managed to slip out of his cell, one current and three former U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of the event told Reuters. All were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive U.S. intelligence.
Tice’s 2013 escape, reported here for the first time, was the first public sighting of the American after he disappeared, the officials said.
Tice is now the focus of a massive manhunt following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this week after 13 years of civil war. Rebels, led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have since released thousands of people from prisons in Damascus where Assad held political opponents, ordinary civilians and foreigners.
The American has not yet been found. There are no credible hints of his whereabouts but also no clear evidence that he is dead, a U.S. official said.
U.S. officials say that Tice’s 2013 escape from prison, where he was believed to have been held by a pro-government militia, is the strongest evidence the U.S. government has to suggest that forces loyal to Assad held Tice. This has over the years allowed American officials to pressure the Assad government directly about the matter.
The White House declined to comment for this story. The CIA, Office of the Director for National Intelligence and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
When Tice escaped, he was spotted by people living in the Mazzeh neighborhood, wandering the street. He entered the house of a well-known Syrian family, the name of which is being withheld for security reasons, a person familiar with the escape said. Tice was recaptured soon after his escape, one current and one former U.S. official said.
U.S. officials believe it is likely that Tice was taken after his escape by forces who answered directly to Assad. One person with knowledge of the escape said Tice was potentially passed back and forth between several different government intelligence agencies in the following years.
