The mum of American journalist Austin Tice, who used to be taken captive right through a reporting commute 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 were free of a Syrian jail through rebels felt “like a practice session.” Her kids woke her up when photographs of Timmerman started circulating on social media misidentifying him as Tice.
Requested if Timmerman’s misidentification used to be a second of false hope, Debra Tice as a substitute characterised it as a second of pleasure to be shared. Timmerman has mentioned he had traveled into Syria for a religious undertaking previous this yr and used to be arrested for getting into the rustic illegally.
AMERICAN FREED FROM SYRIAN PRISON AFTER ASSAD’S OVERTHROW TAKEN OUT OF COUNTRY BY US MILITARY

Austin Tice, who labored as a contract reporter for the Washington Put up and McClatchy, used to be taken captive right through a reporting commute to Syria in 2012. His mom (pictured) voiced hope Sunday that Syria’s upheaval will result in her son’s freedom. (Evelyn Hockstein)
“It used to be virtually like having a practice session … an inkling of what it is in point of fact going to really feel like when it’s Austin strolling loose,” she advised NBC tv’s “Meet the Press”.
Tice is the point of interest of a large seek following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ultimate week after 13 years of civil struggle. Rebels, led through the militant staff Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have launched hundreds of other people from prisons in Damascus the place Assad held political combatants, abnormal civilians and foreigners.
Per week after Assad’s ouster, some U.S. officers concern that Tice can have been killed right through a up to date spherical of Israeli airstrikes. Officers also are involved that if Tice used to be being held underground in a mobile, he could have run out of breathable air as Assad’s forces close off the electrical energy in most of the prisons in Damascus sooner than the president fled.

Debra Tice mentioned the scoop of Travis Timmerman’s contemporary jail liberate from Syria has given her newfound hope that her son Austin Tice will stroll loose. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name)
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Requested whether or not the U.S. executive must be in search of Tice at the floor in Syria, Debra Tice used to be wary, expressing gratitude for efforts through newshounds and different civilians at the floor in search of him, together with from the group Hostage Help International.
“The U.S. executive has made the verdict that they are now not going into Damascus. So, my feeling is, if they do not wish to be there, they should not be there. And the folk which can be there are the folk which can be decided,” she mentioned.
Tice, who labored as a contract reporter for the Washington Put up and McClatchy, used to be probably the most first U.S. newshounds to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil struggle.

Debra Tice holds a information convention on the Nationwide Press Membership in Washington on Would possibly 2, 2023. (Evelyn Hockstein)
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In August 2012, right through preventing in Aleppo, he used to be taken captive.
Weeks later, a YouTube video used to be revealed appearing Tice blindfolded, fingers tied in the back of his again. He used to be led up a hill through armed males in what looked to be Afghan garb and shouting “God is superb” in an obvious bid in charge Islamist rebels for his seize, even though the video simplest received consideration when it used to be posted on a Fb web page related to Assad supporters.
On Friday, Reuters used to be first to document that during 2013 Tice, a former Marine, controlled to slide out of his mobile and used to be noticed transferring between homes within the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh community.