Secret intelligence files show that missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice was imprisoned by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria despite the regime’s longstanding denials, according to a report.
Tice, a freelance journalist, was abducted outside the Syrian capital of Damascus in August 2012. He has remained missing ever since—though the BBC now claims to have confirmation that Assad’s government, which was overthrown in December 2024, had Tice in its detention.
Washington, D.C., has previously accused the Syrian government under Assad—who fled to Russia and the protection of his ally Vladimir Putin—of being responsible for Tice’s disappearance. The U.S. has also questioned the authenticity of a video that emerged shortly after Tice vanished, showing him blindfolded and being held at gunpoint, with analysts suggesting the scene may have been staged to give the appearance that a jihadist group took Tice.
No group or nation has claimed responsibility for Tice’s disappearance. The BBC now reports it has the first evidence that the Syrian government detained the reporter.
The broadcaster claims Tice was captured in a suburb outside Damascus and then held by an Assadist paramilitary group called the National Defense Forces (NDF). One document marked “top secret” obtained by the BBC said Tice was kept in a detention facility in Damascus in 2012.
“Austin’s value was understood,” a former NDF member told the broadcaster, describing Tice as a “card” to be played in any future diplomatic negotiations with the U.S.
Tice was held in the facility until at least February 2013, another Syrian official told the BBC, during which time he was visited at least twice by a doctor. The outlet reported that blood tests showed Tice had a viral infection at the time.
He was later spotted by a visitor to the facility who told the BBC Tice was being treated slightly better than Syrian prisoners, but that “he looked sad, and the joy had gone from his face.”
At some point between late 2012 and early 2013, Tice is reported to have escaped from the facility after squeezing through a window in his cell, but was quickly recaptured. He was also said to have been interrogated twice by a Syrian intelligence officer.
Following the downfall of the Assad regime in December 2024, then-President Joe Biden told a press conference he believed Tice was alive and was committed to returning him to his family. Biden also admitted the government had “no direct evidence” of his whereabouts and said: “We still have to identify where he is.”
Tice’s mother, Debra, said at the time that a “significant source” had told her Austin was alive and was being “treated well” by his captors. After the regime fell and political prisoners were freed, Tice has still not been found.
A former U.S. Marine captain, Tice served in Iraq and Afghanistan before traveling to Syria in 2012 to report on the country’s civil war as a freelancer. He is thought to be one of the longest-held American hostages in history.
Around 100,000 people were disappeared by the Assad regime, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
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