US citizen imprisoned in Syria has been released and flown to Jordan

Travis Timmerman, 29, was imprisoned in Syria after crossing into the country on a Christian pilgrimage in June.

United States officials have revealed that Travis Timmerman, a 29-year-old US citizen who disappeared into the Syrian prison system seven months ago, has been released and taken out of the country.

Citing unnamed government sources, the news agencies Reuters and The Associated Press reported on Friday that Timmerman had been flown to Jordan to meet with US officials.

Timmerman had been missing since June, after he crossed into Syria near the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle.

Once in the country, he had been imprisoned under the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But in recent weeks, Syrian opposition forces, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group, pushed southwards in a lightning offensive, capturing major government strongholds and toppling al-Assad’s administration.

On December 8, al-Assad fled to Russia, ending more than a half-century of his family’s rule.

Timmerman’s release comes as prisoners throughout the al-Assad government’s notorious prison system are set free. For years, organisations like Human Rights Watch have chronicled reports of widespread torture, starvation and disease inside the detention facilities, leading to deaths in government custody.

Some Syrians have reportedly spent years, even decades, inside the facilities’ walls, with no contact with the outside world.

Timmerman, however, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was not treated poorly in the Syrian prison where he was held, known as the Palestine Branch. He explained he was captured while on a Christian pilgrimage.

A US official told Reuters that Timmerman had been transported to the al-Tanf military garrison in Syria, which is located near the border with Jordan and Iraq. From there, he was flown via helicopter to a second US military base in Jordan.

While in prison, Timmerman says that he had a mattress, a plastic drinking container and another two containers to dispose of waste. In videos shared shortly after his release, Timmerman indicated that rebels had used a hammer to break down his cell door and free him.

It is unclear where he will go next. The AP reported that Timmerman thanked those who released him from prison but told US officials he hopes to remain in the Middle East.

The US continues to search for Austin Tice, a former US marine and freelance journalist who was kidnapped while reporting near the capital of Damascus in August 2012.

Tice had been among the first US reporters on the ground in Syria, after the pro-democracy “Arab Spring” protests of 2011 sparked a brutal government crackdown and eventually a civil war.

In the days since al-Assad’s fall, videos documenting the appalling conditions in the government prison system have been widely shared. Scores of people have also trekked to the facilities, hoping to find friends or loved ones who were detained or disappeared long ago.

Describing conditions at the Sednaya Prison near Damascus, Raed al-Saleh — the director of Syria’s Civil Defence organisation, known as the White Helmets — called the facility a “hell”.

White Helmet rescuers have been combing the facility to document human rights violations and free the people inside. Al-Saleh told Al Jazeera on Monday he believed executions were happening daily within the prison walls.

“It is a human slaughterhouse where human beings are being slaughtered and tortured,” al-Saleh said.