The family of James Foley, a Boston-based foreign correspondent who was abducted in Libya in 2011, said Wednesday that he was kidnapped again on Thanksgiving Day, this time while reporting from Syria, and remains missing.

Foley was reportedly taken by unidentified gunmen in the northwest of the country, his family said, an area with heavy fighting and high death tolls in the ongoing conflict. Foley’s family initially had asked that the kidnapping not be disclosed, but decided to make his capture public in an appeal for his release.