Body of Austin Tice, American journalist kidnapped over a decade ago, found: report

The body of American journalist and Marine veteran Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria 12 years ago, has been discovered, according to a report.

The body of Tice, who would now be 43, was found in a cemetery in northern Syria, sources told Sky News Arabia on Sunday, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for confirmation.

Tice was a captain in the Marine Corps and journeyed to Syria as an independent journalist in May 2012, before his final year at Georgetown Law School. He was detained in Damascus in August 2012 while reporting on the uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime, which marked the early stages of the Syrian civil war. 

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A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men. He can be heard saying, "Oh, Jesus." It marked the last time he was heard from. 

The circumstances and timeframe of Tice's reported death were not immediately clear.

The reported discovery of Tice's body comes just weeks after Reuters reported that Syria pledged to set up a liaison office at the foreign ministry to find Tice as a condition of receiving possible sanctions relief to help its economy that has collapsed from years of war.

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Syria has previously claimed it neither abducted nor held the American journalist, though the U.S. reportedly engaged in back-channel talks with Syria with the help of Lebanese intermediaries for years, including under the Biden administration, to no avail.

Rebels seized the capital city of Damascus in December, ousting Assad and renewing hope in the effort to bring Tice home.

Then-President Biden expressed some hope regarding Tice in a public address at the time, saying, "We believe he’s alive. We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence to that yet."

In the 12 years that Tice remained missing, his family believed he was still alive. Reports have suggested the U.S. had received intermittent information pertaining to his whereabouts.

Tice, a Texas native, was covering events in Syria for McClatchy, The Washington Post and other news organizations when he disappeared.

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and The Associated Press contributed to this report.