Syria agrees to help find missing Americans, U.S. envoy says

The new Syrian government has agreed to help the United States locate and return Americans who went missing in the war-ravaged country, the U.S. special envoy to Syria said on Sunday, in another sign of thawing bilateral ties between the two countries.

Thomas Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey who was also appointed as special envoy for Syria, described in a post on X that it was a "power step forward" between the two nations.

"The families of Austin Tice, Majd Kamalmaz, and Kayla Mueller must have closure," he added, referring to American citizens who had gone missing or been killed in Syria during the devastating civil war that erupted in 2011.