US man found near Damascus after months in Syrian prison happymamay

An American man, held for months in a Syrian prison after entering the country on foot, has described how he was freed by men carrying hammers when rebels overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Residents near the capital, Damascus, found the man – who later identified himself as Travis Timmerman to CBS News, the BBC’s news partner.

This comes at a time when the rebels say they intend to close Assad’s harsh prisons Prosecuting those involved in torturing or killing detainees.

Opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, said, “We will pursue them in Syria, and ask countries to hand over the fugitives so that we can achieve justice.”

Footage posted on social media showed Mr Timmerman lying on a sofa as residents spoke to local journalists.

He said that he was arrested upon entering the country seven months ago.

American He was reported missing in May, after being last seen in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Hungarian authorities.

On Monday, a day after rebels took control of Damascus and ousted Assad, Timmerman said two men armed with a hammer broke through his prison door.

“It was smashed, it woke me up,” he said.

“I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the war could have been more active than it was in the end… Once we got out, there was no resistance, no real fighting.”

The 30-year-old man said that he left prison with a large group of people and was trying to head to Jordan.

He said he “felt some moments of fear” when he left prison, adding that since then he had become more concerned about finding a place to sleep.

He added to reporters that local residents responded to his requests for food and assistance.

“They would often come to me,” Timmerman said.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Thursday that Washington is “working to achieve this.” [Mr Timmerman] house”.

Blinken added, during a visit to Jordan, that he could not provide any details about “exactly what will happen.”

Thousands of prisoners have been released since the fall of Assad at the weekend.

The footage showed men, women, and in some cases children, emerging from crowded, windowless cells, often disoriented and unaware of the events taking place outside.

However, Mr. Timmerman appears to have been treated relatively well, telling CBS: “I feel good. I’ve been fed and I’ve been watered, so I feel good.”

He added that he used a mobile phone during his detention and spoke to his family three weeks ago.

Speaking to NBC, Timmerman said he crossed the mountains between Lebanon and Syria on a “pilgrimage” and “read the Bible a lot.”

He declined the opportunity to contact US officials.

The United States has asked Syria’s main opposition group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, to help locate and release American journalist Austin Tice, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.

Tice, a freelance journalist, is believed to have been captured near Damascus on August 14, 2012 while covering the country’s civil war.

He was last seen in a video, blindfolded and in apparent distress, posted online weeks after his arrest. The United States believes he is being held by the Assad regime.

president Joe Biden said the United States believes Tice is aliveBut they must locate it.

The Assad regime was notorious for its extremely harsh prisons, with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimating that nearly 60,000 people were tortured and killed.

Across Syria this week, families desperate to find their loved ones flocked to these dark prison sites.

The Syrian Civil Defense organisation, known as the White Helmets, has assisted in the searches, including at the notorious Saydnaya prison complex. Human rights groups described it as a “human slaughterhouse.”

Raed Saleh, director of the White Helmets, told the BBC: “We are looking for secret prisons in several areas of Damascus.”

“We can’t say much about this, but we’re looking.”

The White Helmets, known for pulling survivors from the rubble during Syria’s devastating civil war, says it has helped reclaim thousands of detainees from prisons.

But many families are still searching in vain.

Saleh admitted, “What happened in Saydnaya is very painful for the families who were waiting for their loved ones.”

“Our inability to reach anyone else in Saydnaya after the initial release of prisoners meant that the people who were there were either dead or elsewhere.

“We have at least two teams searching for prisoners.

He added, “A team including police dogs is searching for survivors. Another team specializes in breaking locks and entering cells.”