Family of journalist missing in Syria since 2012 meets top US official, says he's alive

Washington: The mother of Austin Tice, a US journalist captured over 12 years ago in Syria, said on Friday that her family had information that he is still alive.

“We have from a significant source that has been vetted all over our government: Austin Tice is alive," Debra Tice told journalists at the National Press Club on Friday, before going to the White House for a meeting.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Tice's family in the afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

"Jake Sullivan did have a meeting with Austin Tice's family this afternoon, and ... Jake Sullivan has regularly met with the families of wrongfully detained Americans," she said. "We're going to continue to make sure that we get Americans who are wrongfully detained or Americans home to their families."

Tice, a former US Marine and a freelance journalist, was abducted in 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He was 31 at the time. There has been no claim of responsibility for his abduction.