We hold Bashar al-Assad and his criminal regime accountable for the consequences of Austin’s disappearance and the pain inflicted on his mother — pain, tears and separation," a spokesman told NBC News.

The mother of Austin Tice, who was taken captive in Syria in 2012, voiced hope that upheaval in the country will lead to freedom for her son.

We should ask the militants who toppled Bashar al-Assad in Syria what became of missing U.S. reporter Austin Tice and why

There are no credible hints of his whereabouts, but also no clear evidence that he is dead, a U.S. official said.

Nongovernmental workers and journalists have scoured prisons for clues about his fate in the absence of an official American presence in the country.

Hostage envoy Roger Carstens traveled to Syria Friday, making the first known U.S. in-person contact with the caretaker government, and seeking help in finding missing American Austin Tice.

The recent fall of the Assad regime has infused new hope in the search for Austin Tice, an American detained in Syria for a decade, as prisoners in jails across the country are released, Gustaf Kiland

The scores of prisoners freed after the downfall of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria are giving hope to Debra Tice, mother of the American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing since being detained in 2012.

HOUSTON — The head of an international aid group for hostages believes Houston freelance journalist Austin Tice is alive. This latest update comes a few weeks after another American, Travis Timmerman, was found in Damascus. Tice was detained at a checkpoint near Damascus in 2012 while covering the civil war in Syria.

Bryan Stern, founder of Grey Bull Rescue, says evidence points to a safe return of American journalist and former U.S. Marine Austin Tice, along with other prisoners detained by the brutal Assad regime in Syria.

The Palestinian city of Bethlehem is preparing for a somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of war in Gaza, with most festivities cancelled and crowds of tourists absent Tuesday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.