The U.S. State Department says it thinks an American journalist who went missing in Syria is in the custody of the Syrian government.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland made the remarks after a video was posted on YouTube that purportedly shows journalist Austin Tice in the hands of his captors.
Nuland said the State Department was unable to verify the accuracy of the video, which appears to show Tice with masked gunmen described by some experts as a "caricature of a jihadi group."
Nuland said the video "may have been staged" by the Damascus regime, adding that "there's a lot of reasons for the Syrian government to duck responsibility" for holding Tice.
Meanwhile, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Turkish troops fired across the border into Syria on October 2, killing a member of a Kurdish militia and wounding two others.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman says the Kurdish militia fighters were patrolling the border in Syria's Hasaka Province when they were targeted by Turkish fire.
In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Syria and Turkish authorities should show "maximum restraint" because of "the growing number of radical minded people within the Syrian opposition who could deliberately provoke conflicts near the border."
Also, Yemen's Ministry of Defense said five Yemeni Army officers held by an Islamist group in Syria are students at a military academy in Aleppo and have not been involved in the country's civil war.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland made the remarks after a video was posted on YouTube that purportedly shows journalist Austin Tice in the hands of his captors.
Nuland said the State Department was unable to verify the accuracy of the video, which appears to show Tice with masked gunmen described by some experts as a "caricature of a jihadi group."
Nuland said the video "may have been staged" by the Damascus regime, adding that "there's a lot of reasons for the Syrian government to duck responsibility" for holding Tice.
Meanwhile, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Turkish troops fired across the border into Syria on October 2, killing a member of a Kurdish militia and wounding two others.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman says the Kurdish militia fighters were patrolling the border in Syria's Hasaka Province when they were targeted by Turkish fire.
In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Syria and Turkish authorities should show "maximum restraint" because of "the growing number of radical minded people within the Syrian opposition who could deliberately provoke conflicts near the border."
Also, Yemen's Ministry of Defense said five Yemeni Army officers held by an Islamist group in Syria are students at a military academy in Aleppo and have not been involved in the country's civil war.