Missing American Found Wandering Streets of Damascus Barefoot

Travis Timmerman was imprisoned for entering Syria without permission.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

An American who was declared missing was found in Syria wandering Damascus streets barefoot after being released from prison, CNN reported.

Travis Timmerman, originally from Missouri, was last seen in Budapest in late May, and his family said they had not heard from him since June.

He was imprisoned for entering Syria without permission after deciding to travel to the country for “spiritual purposes.”

Timmerman said his jail door was broken down on Monday by men with AK-47s, and he left with a group of people trying to get to Jordan.

“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.”

Timmerman’s time being held in the Syrian prison “wasn’t too bad,” he said, according to CBS News.

“I was never beaten. The only really bad part was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted to. I was only let out three times a day to go to the bathroom,” he said.

“I’m feeling well. I’ve been fed, and I’ve been watered, so I’m feeling well,” Timmerman said.

Timmerman worked for the law firm Goldberg Law Group based in Chicago, Illinois, between 2020 and 2021.

The firm’s Managing Partner, Michael Goldberg, described him as a “super nice guy” and “pretty smart.”

Efforts are ongoing to search for Austin Tice, a US journalist who has been held in Syria since 2012.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was working to bring “an American citizen who was found just today” back to the States.

“I can’t give you any details on exactly what’s going to happen, except to say that we’re working to bring him home, to bring him out of Syria and to bring him home,” Blinken said at a news conference in Jordan.