Man identifying himself as American Travis Timmerman found in Syria after being freed from prison

A man identifying himself as an American from Missouri, Travis Timmerman, was found Thursday in Syria after he said he was freed from a prison earlier in the week, when longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was forced from power by a shock rebel offensive. 

Timmerman told CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer that he had been trying to make his own way out of the country after walking out of the prison where he’d been held for more than half of a year. He said he was detained upon entering Syria without permission seven months ago after spending a month in neigboring Lebanon.

A U.S. official told CBS News the government was aware of the reports that an American had been found outside Damascus and that it was seeking to provide support, but the official declined to provide any further detail out of respect for his privacy.  

Timmerman said two men armed with AK-47s broke his prison door down Monday with a hammer.

“My door was busted down, it woke me up,” Timmerman said. “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 said he had gone to Syria for Christian “spiritual purposes” and that his experience in prison “wasn’t too bad.”

“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.

Timmerman said he left the prison with a large group and started walking away. He said he had been trying to head toward Jordan.

He said he “had a few moments of fear,” when he left the prison, and hadn’t really processed that he was free.

“I still haven’t really thought about that. I’ve been more worried about finding a place to sleep each night since then,” he told CBS News. “So I’ve been working, really.”

Timmerman said he hadn’t been afraid to approach people to ask for help or a place to sleep at night on his journey.

“They were coming to me, mostly,” Timmerman said, adding that he’d spoken with his family three weeks ago, through a phone that he had while in prison. He said he had been allowed to use it.

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

contributed to this report.