Austin Tice

Austin Bennett Tice (born August 11, 1981) is an American freelance journalist and a veteran U.S. Marine Corps officer who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria on August 13, 2012. Tice is the longest detained American journalist in history, and the second-longest detained journalist in the world after Dawit Isaak, who has been held without trial in Eritrea since 2001. Since 2012, the U.S government has maintained that Tice was being held by the Assad regime. Syrian intelligence files uncovered by the BBC in June 2025 and confirmation from former Syrian officials after the fall of the Assad regime confirmed Tice had been held by the Assad regime.