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Travis Timmerman, a U.S. citizen who had entered Syria from Lebanon on a Christian pilgrimage and had been detained for several months, speaks with reporters in Damascus on Thursday, after he was found in the village of Thihabiyeh east of the capital following the fall of longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Abdulaziz Ketaz/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Abdulaziz Ketaz/AFP via Getty Images
DAMASCUS, Syria — An American man who identified himself as Travis Pete Timmerman was found in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus by local residents on Thursday.
Timmerman was last seen in Budapest, Hungary, in early June. On Thursday, he told reporters in Damascus that he had been on a pilgrimage and was detained earlier this year after crossing into Syria on foot from Lebanon.
Locals in the town of al-Thiyabiyah found the 29-year-old man as he wandered barefoot on the streets in the early hours of the morning.
In an interview with Arabic TV news channel Al-Arabiya, Timmerman said that he had been held in isolation in a prison cell and that he was released when opposition forces stormed Damascus and overthrew President Bashar al-Assad. He said he hadn't been beaten but could hear other people being tortured.
Hungarian police released a missing person's report for Timmerman after he attended church in the capital, Budapest, seven months ago.
The Missouri State Highway Police put out a missing persons flyer last year for a "Pete Timmerman," which noted he was last located in Budapest.
A video circulated earlier Thursday showed Timmerman lying on a mattress under a blanket. A group of men surrounding him said he was being treated well and would be sent home safely.
The video at first sparked speculation that the man could be missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria 12 years ago.
A United States official confirmed that the man in the video was not Tice.
Tice was captured in Syria while reporting on the conflict there. His parents have led a yearslong fight to free their son and the overthrowing of the Assad regime increased hope that Tice may be found. Tice's siblings told NPR this week that they have received information that their brother was alive.
