American planes freed American Travis Timmerman from Syria, writes Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. citizen Travis Timmerman has been expelled from Syria, where he was imprisoned before rebels released him this week, U.S. officials said on Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Timmerman was flown to Jordan and is currently with State Department officials.

Another official said Timmerman was handed over to US troops at Tanf Garrison, located near the border crossing between Syria, Iraq and Jordan, and airlifted out from there.

Timmerman went missing in June, according to his parents. He was released from prison earlier this week after Syrian rebel groups toppled the country’s longtime president Bashar al-Assad.

The White House said on Thursday that the United States had no prior indication that the American was in Syria.

Assad fled to Russia after a 13-year civil war and more than five decades of autocratic rule by his family, during which Syria ran one of the most oppressive police states in the Middle East.

After his ouster, Syrians flocked to the infamous prisons where the Assad regime is estimated to have held tens of thousands of detainees.

Austin Tice, another American citizen who was kidnapped in Syria more than a decade ago, has still not been found.

Tice, a former US Marine and freelance journalist, was 31 when he was kidnapped in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus.