American Travis Timmerman was found in Syria Thursday (December 11) after being imprisoned for several months, NBC News reports.
Timmerman, 29, of Missouri, who said he was on a "pilgrimage" to Damascus, went missing in Hungary in May and wasn't widely known to be in Syria prior to being found and identifying himself. The discovery came as thousands of detainees emerged from jails following the overthrowing of President Bashar al-Assad, which his family's 50-year dictatorship.
Timmerman was initially seen in a video that emerged overnight in which many misidentified him as missing American journalist Austin Tice. The 29-year-old told reporters that he was stopped by Syrian officials earlier this year after he entered the country on foot.
"I was on a pilgrimage to Damascus," he told NBC News on Thursday.
Timmerman said he spent three days living in a mountain area "without food and water" located near the border between Lebanon and Syria before being detained by a border guard and imprisoned by the Assad regime. The American said he was "fed well" and "always had water" during his months of imprisonment, claiming "the only difficulty was not being able to go to the bathroom" regularly.
Timmerman said he was released after rebel forces overturned the Assad regime and broke into prisons, freeing detainees throughout the country, at which point he spent he past few days wandering the streets barefoot and sleeping outside or in abandoned houses. A local found him after he asked for water, subsequently appearing in a video shared on social media that gained the attention of reporters.
Timmerman said he had "been reading the scripture a lot" before deciding to cross over from Lebanon into Syria and was described as being calm upon being found, claiming he was "okay for right now" when put in contact with U.S. officials, later telling NBC News that his imprisonment was "actually good for me" as it was "a time of solace, of meditation and I'm stronger for it."