Official says US flies released American Travis Timmerman from Syria by Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. citizen Travis Timmerman has been airlifted from Syria, where he was imprisoned before rebel fighters released him this week, a U.S. official said on Friday.

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

Timmerman disappeared last June, according to his parents. He was released from prison earlier this week after Syrian rebel groups ousted longtime President Bashar al-Assad.

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

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

After his ouster, Syrians flocked to the notorious prisons, where the Assad regime is estimated to hold tens of thousands of detainees.

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

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