Public Media from Michigan State University

Family: 21-year-old missing after travel to Syria

By AP

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI –

Family members say a 21-year-old man living in Michigan has been missing nearly three weeks after traveling to Syria.

Firas Nashef of Farmington Hills said Monday that his nephew Obada Mzaik boarded a flight for Damascus Jan. 3 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport but wasn't seen exiting immigration clearance in Syria.

Nashef says Mzaik is a U.S.-born American citizen who attended fall classes at Oakland Community College in suburban Detroit. The family says Mzaik traveled to Damascus to attend Al-Yarmouk University as a civil engineering student.

The family says it's had no luck with Syrian and U.S. authorities in Damascus. The State Department says it's working with Syrian officials to learn Mzaik's whereabouts.

On Jan. 11, the U.S. government urged Americans to get out of Syria.

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