Anadolu captures footage of onetime detention site in Syria of US journalist Austin Tice

DAMASCUS

Anadolu has captured footage of the site in Syria’s capital Damascus where American journalist Austin Tice, detained in 2012 by forces of the since-ousted Bashar al-Assad regime, with his fate still unknown, was held.

Tice, a freelance journalist, traveled to Syria to cover developments in the civil war, which started in 2011. In August 2012, he was detained by Assad regime forces in rural Damascus and has not been heard from since.

Despite years of calls from the US government and international media organizations for his release, the ousted regime forces maintained that Tice was not in their custody and claimed to have no information on his whereabouts.

According to information obtained by Anadolu reporters from Syrian security forces, Tice was held in a one-man cell at a headquarters belonging to the regime-affiliated 4th Division, located on Mount Qasioun in northwestern Damascus.

The headquarters is located within the special security zone of the 4th Division, which was under the control of Maher al-Assad, brother of the ousted regime leader Bashar al-Assad, who fled the country last December.

Footage captured by Anadolu also shows that Tice was held in a one-man room resembling a small cabin.

Tice, a freelance journalist for media outlets including McClatchy, CBS, and The Washington Post, disappeared in Syria on Aug. 14, 2012, shortly after his 31st birthday. He was reportedly stopped at a checkpoint in a Damascus suburb while reporting on Syria’s civil war.