An American “pilgrim” has been found in Damascus after spending seven months in prison under the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Initially rumoured on social media to be Austin Tice, an American journalist who has been missing in Syria since 2012, the man has since identified himself to media as Travis Timmerman.
He said he had been trying to make his way out of Syria after being released from prison earlier this week, where he had been held for more than half of a year, CBS reported.
The man said he was detained seven months ago after entering Syria without permission from Lebanon, referring to himself as a “pilgrim”.
A video of the man shows him looking pale, with a shaggy beard, and being introduced in Arabic as an American while lying on floor cushions surrounded by rebels.
The men are thought to have found Mr Timmerman barefoot in an Iranian militia-controlled area of Damascus, Syria’s capital.
Subsequent footage showed the man eating while sitting on the street, giving his name as Travis from the United States.
Mr Timmerman is thought to be from Missouri, with friends posting on Facebook in September that he was missing and that his last known location had been Budapest in May.
He had been held at the Far Falastin prison, operated by Syrian intelligence, known as the ‘Palestinian Division’, but said he was treated well.
“I first went to Europe, to the Czech Republic, at the beginning of 2024 and stayed there for a month,” he said. “Then in May I was in Zahle [a city in eastern Lebanon] then at the end of May I walked from Zahle to Damascus and that’s when I was arrested… and then I had seven months in prison,” he said.
At one point, he told reporters: “I’m actually OK here. I can take more questions.”
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Mr Timmerman revealed that he was freed as rebels took over Aleppo, releasing thousands of inmates, according to the Times.
“It was a chaotic scene. I had my prison clothes on, and another prisoner was with me. I was walking to Jordan,” he said.
A local guard in the small village of Zahayabeh said he came across Mr Timmerman and took him to his home, where the American citizen asked for a boiled and fried egg.
“I gave him both and some pickled eggplant too, and then I called you,” the guard said, referring to a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group that stormed Damascus and toppled Assad.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said officials were working to bring Mr Timmerman home.
“In terms of (the) American citizen who was found just today, I can’t give you any details on exactly what’s going to happen, except to say that we’re working to bring him home, to bring him out of Syria,” Mr Blinken told reporters in Aqaba.
CBS News reported Mr Timmerman identified himself as an American from Missouri and that he was freed from prison earlier in the week.
Unlike Mr Tice, Mr Timmerman’s detention was not made public by either his family or the US.
Mr Tice, who went missing near Damascus in 2012 while covering Syria’s civil war as a freelance journalist, is thought to still be alive. He is one of the longest-held American hostages.
Joe Biden, the US president, said earlier this week that the US believed that he had survived until now and it would try to bring him home. “We remain committed to returning him to his family,” he added.
On Sunday, rebel fighters took control of the Syrian capital after a lightning offensive that toppled the 24-year rule of Assad in less than two weeks.