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Travis Timmerman, 29, was jailed in Syria after crossing into the country on a Christian pilgrimage in June.
US officials have revealed that Travis Timmerman, a 29-year-old US citizen who disappeared into the Syrian prison system seven months ago, has been released and flown out of the country.
Citing unnamed government sources, news agencies Reuters and The Associated Press reported on Friday that Timmerman had been flown to Jordan to meet with U.S. officials.
Timmerman had been missing since June, after he crossed into Syria near the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle.
Once in the country, he was imprisoned under the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
But in recent weeks, Syrian opposition forces, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group, have advanced south in a lightning offensive, capturing important government strongholds and toppling the al-Assad administration.
On December 8, al-Assad fled to Russia, ending more than half a century of his family’s rule.
Timmerman’s release comes at the same time as prisoners are being released from the al-Assad government’s notorious prison system. For years, organizations like Human rights monitoring There have been reports of widespread torture, famine, and disease within detention centers, leading to deaths in government custody.
Some Syrians have reportedly spent years, even decades, within the walls of the facility, without contact with the outside world.
Timmerman, however, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was not treated poorly in the Syrian prison where he was held, known as the Palestinian Section. He explained that he was captured during a Christian pilgrimage.
A US official told Reuters that Timmerman had been transported to the al-Tanf military garrison in Syria, located near the border with Jordan and Iraq. From there, he was flown by helicopter to a second US military base in Jordan.
While in prison, Timmerman says he had a mattress, a plastic drinking container and two other containers to throw away waste. In videos shared shortly after his release, Timmerman indicated that the rebels had used a hammer to break down his cell door and free him.
It’s unclear where he’ll go next. The AP reported that Timmerman thanked those who freed him from prison, but told U.S. officials that he hopes to remain in the Middle East.
The United States continues to search for Austin Tice, a former US sailor and freelance journalist who was kidnapped while reporting near the capital, Damascus, in August 2012.
Tice had been among the first American reporters in Syria, after the pro-democracy “Arab Spring” protests of 2011 sparked a brutal government crackdown and, eventually, civil war.
In the days since Al-Assad’s fall, videos documenting the dire conditions in the government’s prison system have been widely shared. Dozens of people have also come to the facilities in hopes of finding friends or loved ones who were detained or missing long ago.
Describing conditions at Sednaya prison near Damascus, Raed al-Saleh, head of the Syrian Civil Defense organization known as the White Helmets, called the facility “hell.”
White Helmets rescuers have been combing the facility to document human rights violations and free the people inside. Al-Saleh told Al Jazeera on Monday that he believed executions were taking place daily within the prison walls.
“It is a human slaughterhouse where human beings are slaughtered and tortured,” al-Saleh said.
