By LOLITA C. BALDOR and AAMER MADHANI, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. navy has transported out of Syria an American who had disappeared seven months in the past into former President Bashar Assad’s infamous jail system and was among the many hundreds launched this week by rebels, a U.S. official stated Friday.
Travis Timmerman, 29, was flown out of Syria on a U.S. navy helicopter, in keeping with a U.S. official who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate an ongoing operation.
It’s unclear the place Timmerman might go subsequent. After being rescued, he thanked his rescuers for releasing him however has instructed American officers that he want to keep within the area, in keeping with one other individual conversant in the matter who was not approved to remark publicly.
Timmerman was detained after he crossed into Syria whereas on a Christian pilgrimage from a mountain alongside the japanese Lebanese city of Zahle in June.
He instructed The Related Press that he was not ill-treated whereas in Palestine Department, a infamous detention facility operated by Syrian intelligence.
In his jail cell, Timmerman stated, he had a mattress, a plastic ingesting container and two others for waste.
He stated the Friday calls to prayers helped preserve observe of days.
He stated he was freed by “the liberators who came into the prison and knocked the door down (of his cell) with a hammer.” He had been held individually from Syrian and different Arab prisoners and stated he didn’t know of every other People held within the facility.
Timmerman is from Urbana, Missouri, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Springfield within the southwestern a part of the state. He earned a finance diploma from Missouri State College in 2017.
AP reporter Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.
Initially Revealed: December 13, 2024 at 2:13 PM EST
