WASHINGTON: The US military has transported out of Syria an American who had disappeared seven months ago into former President Bashar Assad’s notorious prison system and was among the thousands released this week by rebels, a US official said Friday.
Travis Timmerman, 29, was flown out of Syria on a US military helicopter, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation.
It’s unclear where Timmerman may go next. After being rescued, he thanked his rescuers for freeing him but has told American officials that he would like to stay in the region, according to another person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.
Timmerman was detained after he crossed into Syria while on a Christian pilgrimage from a mountain along the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle in June.
He told The Associated Press that he was not ill-treated while in Palestine Branch, a notorious detention facility operated by Syrian intelligence.
In his prison cell, Timmerman said, he had a mattress, a plastic drinking container and two others for waste.
He said the Friday calls to prayers helped keep track of days.
Timmerman said he was released Monday morning alongside a young Syrian man and 70 female prisoners, some of whom had their children with them, after rebels seized control of Damascus and forced Assad from power in a dramatic upheaval.
He said he was freed by “the liberators who came into the prison and knocked the door down (of his cell) with a hammer.” He had been held separately from Syrian and other Arab prisoners and said he didn’t know of any other Americans held in the facility.
Timmerman is from Urbana, Missouri, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Springfield in the southwestern part of the state. He earned a finance degree from Missouri State University in 2017.

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army command said its units were being deployed in the border village of Khiam on Friday after entering it on Thursday as a new UN report warned that Lebanon had “reached the brink of collapse” despite the signing of a ceasefire agreement last month to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia also urged a reassessment of priorities, emphasizing that care is a fundamental element in achieving social stability and economic recovery.

In a study titled “Restoring Care, Rebuilding Communities: Path to Recovery for Lebanon,” ESCWA highlighted that the effects of the conflict extended beyond immediate humanitarian needs, affecting health, education, and social infrastructure.

On Friday, Lebanese army units began clearing the main road from the north of the town to the south, connecting Khiam to Marjayoun, by removing rubble and potential explosives left by the Israelis.

The army command said the deployment of its military units was taking place in coordination with the five-member committee tasked with monitoring the ceasefire agreement.

Israel completed the withdrawal of its forces from Khiam on Thursday morning.

The Lebanese army command warned “citizens not to approach the area and abide by the instructions of the military units until the completion of the deployment.”

A Lebanese resident who was killed on Thursday when Israeli forces raided Khiam Square a few hours following the Lebanese army’s entry to the area has been identified as Mustafa Awada. Several people were injured in the Israeli assault.

Awada had just broadcast a live video from his phone when an Israeli attack drone killed him and injured many others who were with him in Khiam Square.

The Lebanese army retrieved Awada’s body and transported it to the Marjayoun Governmental Hospital on Friday.

The Israeli army continued its hostilities in the invaded southern area, raiding the coastal town of Naqoura on Friday morning.

An Israeli drone also raided the Tebna area near Baisariyeh.

The Israeli army renewed its warnings to residents of southern Lebanon, instructing them not to move south of an area that includes 50 villages, the houses and infrastructure of which have been almost destroyed.

Lebanon’s southern border with Israel extends 120 km from the west of Naqoura to the east of Shebaa, constituting an area of 30,575 hectares.

There are 30 towns and villages on the borderline, comprising an estimated 32,000 homes.

Some 170,000 people reside in these towns, including around 90,000 permanent residents, who are still displaced.

Official statistics indicate that 70 percent of people in the area Israeli forces invaded are Shiites, while the remaining residents include Sunni Muslims, Druze, and Christians.

Israeli troops are set to withdraw from the area within 60 days since the ceasefire agreement came into force.

Under the ceasefire agreement, the Lebanese army is supposed to deploy 6,000 soldiers south of the Litani River to work in coordination with UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL to extend state authority and withdraw unauthorized weapons from the area.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed on Friday in a social media post that Brigade 769 forces discovered and destroyed “Kornet missiles and an anti-tank missile launcher” in southern Lebanon.

Adraee claimed that the forces discovered numerous combat tools, including rocket launchers and Kornet missiles camouflaged in rugged and mountainous areas, in addition to Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition magazines, and other military equipment.

They also found an anti-tank rocket launcher that Hezbollah operatives had used to fire at towns in the Galilee panhandle area over the past year, which was subsequently confiscated.

Adraee said Israeli forces also “discovered a weapons depot containing RPG shells and mortar rounds, all of which were confiscated.”

The troops were conducting field operations to “neutralize threats,” he added.

Also on Friday, explosions were heard in the mountain range and villages of Baalbek-Hermel, in eastern Lebanon.

It was confirmed that these explosions originated from firing ranges located east of Baalbek, where the Lebanese army was detonating missiles left over from the recent Israeli aggression.

The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria continued to witness heavy traffic for the sixth consecutive day, with families fleeing Syrian territory following the fall of the Assad regime.

The Lebanese General Security prevents the entry of those who do not meet specific conditions while facilitating the passage of Syrian refugees in Lebanon returning to their homeland.

Several Lebanese truck owners, stranded in Daraa, Syria, appealed to Lebanese authorities to urgently intervene to facilitate the passage of their vehicles to Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing.

The truck owners said in their plea that their number is estimated at 70 trucks loaded with cheese and food products destined for Lebanese markets.

They said that delays in procedures and increasing restrictions at the border left the trucks stranded on Syrian land for several days.

The Lebanese army on Friday launched an investigation into a road accident involving 30 Syrian nationals who sustained injuries when the passenger bus they were traveling in overturned and collided with a curb in Akkar, in the far north of Lebanon.

It was revealed that those travelers had entered Lebanon clandestinely through an illegal border crossing along the Nahr Al-Kabir river between Syria and Lebanon.

The bus driver, a Lebanese national, was among 11 injured people who needed to be hospitalized. Some passengers were in critical condition.

In other developments, Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah’s head of liaison and coordination unit, has assured that the movement would support the Lebanese army’s mission as outlined in the ceasefire agreement to the greatest extent possible.

The assurance came at a recent meeting between Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun and Safa, the Central News Agency, known as Al-Markazia, reported on Friday.

The parliament speaker’s adviser, Ahmed Baalbaki, was also present.

Safa previously survived airstrikes targeting him in Beirut in October.