CHP continues attempts to rescue missing US journalist

ISTANBUL

AA Photo

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has directed his party to try and rescue an American journalist currently held in Syria after the man’s family appealed to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) for help, Anatolia news agency has reported.
 
Kılıçdaroğlu said they were trying to retrieve American journalist Austin Tice amid continuing negotiations to rescue missing journalist Bashar Fehmi Kadumi.
 
A delegation composed of CHP lawmakers went to Syria to bring home Turkish journalist Cüneyt Ünal after he was held for three months in a Syrian prison. Ünal, who works for U.S.-funded broadcaster al-Hurra, went missing with his Jordanian colleague, Kadumi, soon after crossing the Turkish-Syrian border on Aug. 20 to report on the civil war in the country.
 
Tice was last seen in the Damascus suburb of Darayya four months ago. The 31-year-old journalist, who works for the Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers, last contacted his family on Aug. 12. In his last Twitter post on Aug. 11, Tice wrote that he spent his birthday at a pool party with rebel Free Syrian Army members. A video clip posted online in late September showed Tice alive in the custody of gunmen. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland previously said they believed that Syrian authorities had taken Tice into custody, but Syria has not confirmed his detention.