Death of Iran general spurs anxiety over fate of US hostages

The killing of a top Iranian general has ratcheted up the anxiety of families of Americans held in Iran, one month after the release of a New Jersey student had given them hope.

The Trump administration has made a priority of bringing home hostages held abroad, but the prospect of a resolution for the handful of captives in Iran seems to have dimmed with the two nations edging dangerously close to conflict and warning of retaliatory strikes and continued agitation.

"He wasn't safe before now, but now he's really not safe," said Joanne White, whose son, Navy veteran Michael White of Imperial Beach, California, has been imprisoned since July while visiting a girlfriend in Iran.

"I don't know if anyone is going to retaliate."
"I've had to learn, very painfully, not to get my hopes up as much as I want to until something actually happens," Namazi said. "At the same time, I've had to teach myself not to get too despondent because, if I don't have hope, how can I go on? It's my honest feeling now."
She said he has long been a Trump supporter and, when it came to the president's impeachment, "he told me to tell the Democrats to leave Trump alone."