By Erin Banco and Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) -In the early days of 2013, an American man, dressed in ragged clothing, dodged between houses in the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood looking for a civilian to take him to safety after more than five months of captivity in the concrete cells of a local prison.

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice has made her first visit to Syria in almost a decade and says that the administration of President-elect Donald Trump had offered support to help find her