US asks Syrian rebels HTS to help in search for journalist Austin Tice

The United States has asked Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group to help locate and free missing American journalist Austin Tice as it liberates the country's prisons in the aftermath of Bashar Assad's overthrow, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. Washington is telling all parties in Syria that Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, is a top U.S. priority, Miller told a press briefing. Miller said that message had been sent via intermediaries to HTS, "In all of our communications with parties that we know talk to HTS, we have sent very clearly the message that as they move through Syria liberating prisons, that our top priority is the return of Austin Tice," he said. "We want anyone who's operating on the ground in Syria to be on the lookout for him, and if they do find him, to return to him to us safely as soon as possible." President Joe Biden has said he believes Tice is alive and has dispatched hostage-affairs envoy Roger Carstens to the region as part of intensive efforts to free him.
 