Assad regime planned US journalist's kidnap for weeks, BBC finds

US journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012, was kidnapped in a calculated operation which was more than a month in the planning, the BBC can reveal.

A member of the group which detained Tice has also claimed the abduction was sanctioned by Syria's leader at the time, President Bashar al-Assad.

Tice was seen getting into a car with a driver he knew and trusted. For years, many assumed they had stumbled upon a government checkpoint, and that the abduction of the journalist had been opportunistic.

But we have uncovered evidence that, in fact, his disappearance was anything but chance.

In a new BBC podcast: Where is Austin Tice? Series 3 of I'm Not A Monster Presents , we reveal the findings of a years-long investigation into what happened to Tice, who had been reporting on Syria's civil war at the time.

His case has been followed closely by international media and cited by successive US presidents.

Josh Baker enters a dangerous world of fear, greed and betrayal as he uncovers what happened in one of the biggest missing-person cases of our time - the abduction of Austin Tice.

Georgetown University law student Tice, who had served as a US Marines captain, was last seen in a video - blindfolded and in apparent distress - posted more than a month after his capture.