Travis Timmerman, the American who said he had been released from a Syrian prison among the decline of ousted President Bashar al-Assaddictatorship, will be taken out of the country by the US military, a US defense official confirmed to CBS News on Friday.
Timmerman, 29, who disappeared from Syria's notorious prison system about seven months ago, was taken to the US Al Tanf military base and then flown out of Syria by helicopter and brought over to Dept. US state. A second defense official told CBS News that he was flown to Jordan.
Mouaz Moustafa, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Syrian Crisis Task Force who worked with rebels to organize Timmerman's transfer back to safety, shared a photo of Timmerman's transfer to US forces.
“Pete Timmerman AKA Travis is safe and sound and back in America's hands thanks to the amazing team at (Syrian Emergency Task Force) for making this happen!” Moustafa wrote in a post on X.
Timmerman, who is from Missouri, told CBS News senior correspondent Elizabeth Palmer on Thursday that he was released from prison earlier this week after rebels ousted the Assad government. He said two men armed with AK-47s broke down the door of his prison on Monday with a hammer.
“My door was broken down, it woke me up,” Timmerman said. “I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the war could have been more active than it was.” it finally. … Once we found out, there was no struggle, no fight.”
Timmerman said he went to Syria for Christian “spiritual reasons” and that his experience in prison was “not too bad”. He said he was detained after he entered Syria without permission seven months ago after spending a month in neighboring Lebanon.
“I was never beaten. The only really bad thing was that I couldn't go to the bathroom when I wanted. I was only let out three times a day for to go to the bathroom,” he said.
Timmerman said he left the prison with a large group and started walking away.
The 29-year-old's family told CBS News foreign correspondent Ian Lee they are thrilled he is alive and well.
“It's hard not to think negative thoughts at that time. We thought this was the worst outcome for us,” said Timmerman's cousin, Mandy Pentridge.
Timmerman is from Urbana, Missouri, about 50 miles north of Springfield in the southwest part of the state. He earned a finance degree from Missouri State University in 2017, the Associated Press reported.
Haley Ott and
contributed to this report.
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