WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. national Travis Timmerman was airlifted from Syria, where he was imprisoned before being freed by rebels this week, U.S. officials said on Friday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Timmerman had been transferred to Jordan and is now with State Department officials.
Timmerman went missing in June, her parents said. He was released earlier in the week after Syrian rebels ousted the country’s longtime president, Bashar al-Assad.
The White House said Thursday that the United States had no prior indication that the men were in Syria.
Assad fled to Russia after 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of dictatorial rule by his family, during which Syria ran one of the most repressive police states in the Middle East.
After his ouster, Syrians flocked to the notorious prisons where Assad’s regime is estimated to be holding tens of thousands of people.
Another American, Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria more than a decade ago, has never been found.
Tice, a former U.S. Marine and freelance journalist, was 31 years old when he was kidnapped while reporting in Damascus in August 2012.
