NEW YORK, December 19. /TASS/. Debra Tice, the mother of missing US journalist Austin Tice, has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his help in locating her son in Syria, NBC television reported on Wednesday.
"The current situation in Syria forces us to ask for your help in finding Austin and safely reuniting our family," NBC quoted Debra Tice as saying in her letter to the Russian leader. "We respectfully request your assistance in finding Austin and safely returning him to our family," she wrote, mentioning what she called Putin’s "profound ties" with the Syrian government.
"We would, of course, be willing to travel to Moscow or any place on earth to embrace our precious Austin and bring him safely home," her letter reads.
Austin Tice, who wrote for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal from the Arab republic, went missing in 2012. Later reports said that Tice, a former US Marine Corps infantry officer, had been arrested by Syrian authorities in southern Damascus on suspicions of having links with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
In late November, armed opposition militias launched a large-scale offensive against the positions of the Syrian army after which government forces withdrew from the city. On December 8, they entered Damascus, and President Bashar Assad resigned and fled the country. On December 10, Mohammed al-Bashir, who had served as prime minister of the so-called Salvation Government, the civilian administration formed by opposition groups in the Idlib governorate, since January, declared himself the head of the Syrian government for the transitional period to last until March 1, 2025.