On Thursday, a scruffy bearded man who identified himself as Travis Timmerman, a missing Missouri resident, was found in Syria and said he was jailed after visiting Syria for “spiritual purposes.”
Timmerman, 29, said he had spent more than six months in a government prison when he was freed by rebel fighters armed with AK-47s on Monday, the day the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fell.
“I woke up because the door was broken,” Timmerman told CBS.
“I thought the war might have become more active in the end because I thought the guards were still there…Once we got out there was no resistance and no real fighting. There wasn't.”
A video of Timmerman posted by Turkish news agency Anadolu on Thursday initially led to speculation that he was Austin Tice, the American journalist who disappeared in 2012 while covering the anti-Assad uprising in Damascus at the outbreak of Syria's civil war. caused it.
Timmerman said he entered Syria without permission and was detained seven months ago when he crossed the border from Lebanon.
He had traveled to Lebanon from Europe for “spiritual purposes” and described himself to NBC News as a religious “pilgrim.”
His experience in one of Syria's notorious prisons “wasn't that bad,” he said.
“I was never beaten. My only regret was that I couldn't go to the bathroom when I wanted to. They only let me go outside three times a day to go to the bathroom.” he told CBS News.
He said it is now more difficult to find a place to sleep at night on the streets.
