Ex-Syrian commander questioned in Beirut over missing US journalist

Former Syrian official and adviser to ousted President Bashar al-Assad has been interviewed in Beirut by the FBI and the CIA in April, in the presence of Lebanese officials, The Washington Post and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said Sunday.

According to the reports, Bassam al-Hassan told the FBI that American journalist Austin Tice was killed in 2013 on the orders of al-Assad, after Tice briefly escaped from his prison cell.

The U.S. government is investigating al-Hassan's claims, the Washington Post said, adding that Tice's family believe he is still alive, based on testimony from people who said they had seen him in prison in Syria after 2013.

"Hassan gave FBI agents descriptions of the location where Tice’s remains could be found. Those descriptions have shifted somewhat, but are always in the Damascus area," the American daily said.

According to BBC Sources, at least one out of three meetings with Hassan was held at the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

Sources close to Hassan told the BBC that while in Iran, he received a phone call and was asked to come to Lebanon to meet with U.S. officials. It is believed that he was given assurances that he would not be detained.

Hassan had fled to Iran after Assad's ouster.

Tice, who has had his work published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and others, disappeared at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus as the Syrian civil war intensified.

A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, "Oh, Jesus." He has not been heard from since. Syria has publicly denied that it was holding him.

When Syrian prisons were emptied after the fall of Assad in December 2024, there was no sign of Tice.