Biden calls for release of Austin Tice, abducted in Syria in 2012

FILE PHOTO: Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, holds a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, U.S., May 2, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden called on Wednesday for the immediate release of Austin Tice, a former U.S. Marine and a freelance journalist who was kidnapped in Syria in August 2012.

"We have repeatedly pressed the government of Syria to work with us so that we can, at last, bring Austin home. Today, I once again call for his immediate release," Biden said in the statement marking twelve years since Tice's abduction.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas and Ismail Shakil; editing by Rami Ayyub)