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Hostage Hunter Fears Ousted Syria Rulers Still Hiding US Reporter Tice

A file picture of Austin Tice, and his parents Marc and Debra giving a press conference in Beirut on December 4, 2018 - AFP
A file picture of Austin Tice, and his parents Marc and Debra giving a press conference in Beirut on December 4, 2018 - AFP
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Hostage Hunter Fears Ousted Syria Rulers Still Hiding US Reporter Tice

A file picture of Austin Tice, and his parents Marc and Debra giving a press conference in Beirut on December 4, 2018 - AFP
A file picture of Austin Tice, and his parents Marc and Debra giving a press conference in Beirut on December 4, 2018 - AFP

A former prisoner spearheading a private effort to help find captive US journalist Austin Tice is concerned that deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad may be hiding him to use as leverage in securing his own future.

Nizar Zakka, who was detained in Iran on spying charges between 2015 and 2019, now runs Hostage Aid Worldwide, a non-profit group working with families to free kidnapped civilians.

This week he was in Syria in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow of Assad.

The overthrow of the Assad clan has allowed thousands of Syrian prisoners -- and one other American -- to escape Syria's notorious detention centers, but many are still missing, including Tice, according to AFP.

Tice was working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other media outlets when he was detained at a checkpoint in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus.

Zakka, who is in contact with Syria's new transitional government led by the opposition fighters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has been scouring liberated prisons for signs of the missing American.

- Helicopter escape -

But he believes that members of the ousted Assad clan or former officials may still be holding him, hoping to use his fate as leverage to secure a ransom or some kind of legal protection.

Before the fall of Assad, Zakka had a good idea of where Tice might be.

"The intel we have as late as early January 2024 was that he was in certain places," the Lebanese-American campaigner told AFP in Damascus.

"We have been tracking all along. We have intel about where he was at this date, where he was at that date, which prison, which guard."

But after the rapid collapse of Assad's rule threw the vast Syrian detention network into chaos, this data could only lead Hostage Aid so far.

Zakka thinks a senior former government figure such as Maher al-Assad, the leader's younger brother, may have arranged to hide Tice inside Syria.

A former official of the ousted government told AFP that Maher only learned about his brother's escape after the fact and subsequently took a helicopter, probably towards the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

- Text message campaign -

Zakka favors a theory that Tice is being held in a secret safehouse somewhere in or near Damascus.

"Because I don't believe the regime will trust anybody to take him," he explained. "They cannot take him to Russia with them because I'm sure the Russian government would not accept that.

"And I don't believe they're going to trust the Iranians ... So I believe he's somewhere over here."

Hostage Aid is therefore pushing on with its campaign to find Tice inside Syria, sending a million text messages to citizens asking for information and broadcasting televised appeals for information.

The drive has already borne unexpected fruit. Civilians who found an escaped American detainee that the US government did not even know was in Syria contacted the Tice hotline immediately.

Travis Timmerman, 29, had been reported missing in Budapest, Hungary, but was found wandering shoeless in the Damascus suburbs after the doors of the notorious "Palestine Branch" detention centre were thrown open.

Thanks to the Tice campaign, his Syrian rescuers knew who to call -- giving Zakka hope that the other US hostage may also soon be freed.

"We never failed, and this time we're not going to fail and I promised the mom that we're going to get Austin home," Zakka declared.

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Rescuers Dig for Survivors of Vanuatu Earthquake

A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force
A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force
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Rescuers Dig for Survivors of Vanuatu Earthquake

A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force
A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force

Vanuatu's capital was without water on Wednesday, a day after reservoirs were destroyed by a violent magnitude 7.3 earthquake that wrought havoc on the South Pacific island nation, with the number of people killed and injured expected to rise.
The government's disaster management office said early Wednesday that 14 deaths were confirmed, but hours later said nine had been verified by the main hospital. The number was “expected to increase" as people remained trapped in fallen buildings, a spokesperson said. About 200 have been treated for injuries, The Associated Press reported.
Frantic rescue efforts that began at flattened buildings after the quake hit early Tuesday afternoon continued 30 hours later, with dozens working in dust and heat with little water to seek those yelling for help inside. A few more survivors were extracted from the rubble of downtown buildings in Port Vila, also the country's largest city, while others remained trapped and some were found dead.
A near-total telecommunications collapse meant people struggled to confirm their relatives' safety. Some providers began to reestablish phone service but connections were patchy.
Internet service had not been restored because the submarine cable supplying it was damaged, the operator said.
The earthquake hit at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and was centered 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the capital of Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands home to about 330,000 people. A tsunami warning was called off less than two hours after the quake, but dozens of large aftershocks continued to rattle the country.
The Asia-Pacific head of the International Federation of Red Cross, Katie Greenwood, speaking to The Associated Press from Fiji, said it was not clear how many people were still missing or killed.
“We have anecdotal information coming from people at the search and rescue site that are fairly confident that unfortunately those numbers will rise,” she said.
The capital’s main medical facility, Vila Central Hospital, was badly damaged and patients were moved to a military camp. Clement Chipokolo, Vanuatu country director at the Christian relief agency World Vision, said health care services, already strained before the quake, were overwhelmed.
No water in Port Vila While power was out in swathes of Port Vila, the biggest fear among aid agencies was the lack of water. Two large reservoirs serving the capital were totally decimated, the National Disaster Management Office said.
Resident Milroy Cainton said people were joining large queues to buy water in stores, but could only purchase two or four bottles at a time. “People are not really concerned about electricity, they're just concerned about water,” he said.
UNICEF was recording a rise in diarrhea among children, a sign that they had begun to drink tainted water, said the chief of the Vanuatu office, Eric Durpaire. Officials told residents of areas where water had been restored to boil it.