An American freed in Syria on Thursday stated he was on a Christian pilgrimage when he crossed into the nation on foot seven months in the past and was detained by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Travis Timmerman was first seen in video that emerged on-line Thursday after rebels seized the capital Damascus and overthrew Assad over the weekend.
Within the video, a bearded Timmerman was mendacity on a mattress below a blanket in what seemed to be a non-public home. A gaggle of males within the video stated he was being handled nicely and could be safely returned house, The Related Press reported.
Some who considered the video initially believed Timmerman was Austin Tice, an American journalist and Marine veteran who disappeared in Syria 12 years in the past. Tice stays lacking as of Thursday morning, although U.S. officers have stated they imagine he’s nonetheless alive.
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Timmerman later advised the Al-Arabiya TV community throughout an interview that he was detained after illegally crossing into Syria on foot from the jap Lebanese city of Zahle seven months in the past.
He stated the guards handled him nicely in detention however may hear others, who he believed had been younger males, being tortured each day.
“It was OK. I was fed. I was watered. The one difficulty was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted to,” he stated, noting that guards solely let him out thrice a day.
1000’s of individuals had been free of the Saydnaya navy jail, simply north of Damascus, Syria, after rebels overthrew the Bashar al-Assad regime on Sunday. The notorious jail is called the “human slaughterhouse.” (AP Photograph/Hussein Malla)
“I was not beaten and the guards treated me decently,” he added.
U.S. officers didn’t instantly touch upon Timmerman.
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In the meantime, the Biden administration despatched the U.S. authorities’s high hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, to Lebanon earlier this week in hopes of accumulating data on the whereabouts of Tice.
The State Division’s Reward for Justice program is providing $10 million for data referring to finding Austin Tice. (The State Division’s Reward for Justice)
Tice was detained in Damascus in August 2012 whereas reporting on the rebellion in opposition to the Assad regime, which marked the early levels of the Syrian civil battle.
Tice was final seen in video that emerged weeks after his disappearance, displaying him blindfolded and held by armed males and saying, “Oh, Jesus.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
