American Freed From Syrian Prison After Assad Toppled Found In Damascus Suburb

An American found in Syria on Thursday said he had been freed from prison earlier in the week after Bashar al-Assad was removed from power, according to reports.

Travis Timmerman of Missouri was found by residents in a suburb of Damascus.

Timmerman told CBS News that he had been held in prison for half a year after being taken into custody when he entered Syria seven months ago from neighboring Lebanon for "spiritual purposes."

He was among the thousands who were released from Syria's notorious prisons after rebel troops removed Assad from power over the weekend.

Timmerman said two men with AK-47s broke down his prison door on Monday with a hammer.

"My door was busted down, it woke me up," Timmerman told CBS News. "I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the warfare could have been more active than it ended up being. ... Once we got out, there was no resistance, there was no real fighting."

After being released from prison, Timmerman told the news outlet that he had been trying to get to Jordan.

Timmerman acknowledged he "had a few moments of fear" since being released but said he was still trying to process that he was free.

"I still haven't really thought about that. I've been more worried about finding a place to sleep each night since then," he said. "So I've been working, really."

His family told NBC News that Timmerman being found amounted to a "Christmas miracle."

"We're very blessed that he is safe, that he is good, that he is protected," Pixie Rogers said of her brother. "And I saw on the news that he got fed."

A Missouri State Highway Patrol bulletin this year said Pete Travis Timmerman, 29, had gone missing in Hungary in early June, the Associated Press reported.

The Hungarian police released a missing persons bulletin in August that Timmerman had last been seen at a church in Budapest.

Timmerman is from Urbana, Mo. State Police released his photo as part of a missing person report earlier this year.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had few details about Timmerman when talking to reporters at the King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba, Jordan.

"In terms of an American citizen who was found just today, I can't give you any details on exactly what's going to happen except to say that we're working to bring them home, to bring them out of Syria and to bring them home," he said, according to a State Department transcript.

"But for privacy reasons, I can't share any more detail than that at this point." Blinken said.