‘Relentless’ effort to find US journalist missing for 10 years in Syria

US President Joe Biden has told the parents of a reporter who went missing in Syria 10 years ago that his administration would work “relentlessly” for his return.

On Monday, Mr Biden met the parents of Austin Tice, a freelance journalist and former marine, who disappeared while reporting in 2012, Reuters said.

“During their meeting, the president reiterated his commitment to continue to work through all available avenues to secure Austin’s long overdue return to his family,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

She said officials would “remain in regular contact with the Tices and other families of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad”.

“We appreciate the bravery and candour of families enduring these harrowing experiences, and we remain committed to supporting them and, most importantly, reuniting them with their loved ones,” she said.

The administration would work “relentlessly until Austin and other Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained worldwide are safely at home with their loved ones”.

The president and the journalist’s parents attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday, where Tice and other journalists killed, injured or detained while covering conflicts were honoured.

Ms Psaki said the senior officials had already met Tice’s family several times, but “meeting with the president is an additional and more significant step”.

Tice went missing in August 2012 at a checkpoint near Damascus. Five weeks later, a video was released showing him being held by armed men.

It is the only video of him that has been released since he was taken.

In 2018, Tice’s parents said they had received information that indicated their son was still alive. CIA officers were sent to Damascus in an effort to find him.

Last year, the State Department’s hostage envoy said he thought Tice was alive.

Another former US marine, Trevor Reed, was released from detention in Russia last week in a Cold Warstyle prisoner swap with a detained Russian man.