A hostage rescue operator in Syria told Fox News Digital he believes Marine veteran Austin Tice is alive and has hope that he will be found soon.

In the 12 years since Austin Tice was abducted in Syria, his family and his coworkers at McClatchy have grieved at his absence, despaired at silence from the Syrian government and prayed that

The high-level delegation arrived to engage in talks with Syria's interim leadership, the State Department confirmed early Friday.

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.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Tice's mother his country won't conduct airstrikes near a secret prison outside Damascus.

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

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.

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

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

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 mother of missing journalist Austin Tice told NBC News" "Meet the Press" that seeing an American held captive in Damascus after he was freed was "almost like having a rehearsal."