A US citizen who had been imprisoned for months in Syria was found wandering near Damascus following the fall of the Assad regime, CBS News reported.
The man, who identified hilmself as Travis Timmerman, said that he was arrested after entering Syria on foot seven months ago. He was reported missing after last being seen in Hungary in May.
Timmerman said that he remained imprisoned until Monday, less than two days after former President Bashar al-Assad fled the country, when two men with a hammer broke his prison door, setting him free.
He joined a larger group of prisoners who were escaping the prison at the same time before deciding to attempt to make his way to Jordan. He said that Syrian citizens have been generous in helping him obtain food and other aid.
He also said that he had been treated relatively well in prison and was given enough to eat and drink.
Timmerman told NBC News that he crossed from Lebanon into Syria on a "pilgrimage" after he had "been reading the scripture a lot."
A US official told NBC that the administration is "aware of reports of an American found outside of Damascus and seeking to provide support. Out of respect for his privacy, we have no further information to provide at this time."
Timmerman is not the only US citizen to have been imprisoned in Syria. The US is seeking information on the whereabouts of American freelance journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in 2012 while covering the Syrian Civil War and is believed to have been imprisoned by the Assad regime.