Family Renews Appeal to Find U.S. Journalist Missing in Syria

Family members of Austin Tice, the missing American journalist, said on Sunday that they believe that he is in Syria and alive, and appealed for help locating him now that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has fallen.

Mr. Tice disappeared in 2012 outside Damascus, the Syrian capital, as the country descended into civil war.

“We are urging everyone on the ground to help us in this unique and singular moment to look for Austin and to help us bring him home,” his younger brother, Jacob Tice, told The New York Times. “What we do know is that he is alive and he is in Syria.”

The United States has said it believed Mr. Tice had been held captive by the government of Mr. al-Assad. The Assad regime had long maintained that it was not holding Mr. Tice and had no information about him.

The Biden administration has “engaged extensively” to try to get Mr. Tice back to the United States, including by directly contacting Syrian officials and working through third parties, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. However, the official said the Syrian government, which had been under the leadership of Mr. al-Assad until his downfall on Sunday, had not agreed to discuss Mr. Tice’s case.

Mr. Tice, who was freelancing for The Washington Post as well as McClatchy and other outlets when he was abducted, had been in Syria for months, embedding with and writing about opposition rebels.