Travis Timmerman appears to be like out the window of a van as he’s taken to be handed over to U.S. forces close to the Syrian border with Iraq and Jordan on Dec. 13.
Manu Brabo for NPR
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Manu Brabo for NPR
ALONG THE M2 HIGHWAY in southern Syria — The journey of a younger Missouri man free of a Syrian jail when the regime fell earlier this month started with a wilderness spiritual pilgrimage earlier this yr and ended on a distant desert freeway. That’s the place he was handed over to U.S. custody on Friday.
A U.S. fighter jet flew overhead because the American man walked with an official from Syria’s interim authorities to fulfill U.S. particular forces positioned in entrance of MRAP armored automobiles on the abandoned freeway.
The previous lawyer and author is named Pete Timmerman to Missouri authorities who have been looking for him. However he simply calls himself Travis.
Syrian forces with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, safe the realm the place Timmerman is transferred to U.S. forces close to the Syrian border with Iraq and Jordan.
Manu Brabo for NPR
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A U.S. particular forces operative frisked Timmerman for weapons, after which a commanding officer requested him to substantiate his id.
Requested for his full identify, he mentioned, “Simply Travis.”
Timmerman, 29, confirmed he had been held in detention for seven months and that he had entered Syria from Lebanon.
With that, the officer reached out his hand and mentioned, “Travis — welcome house.”
After hugging a Syrian American activist, the Syrian official and among the Syrian fighters who had been taking good care of him, Timmerman was escorted into one of many American armored automobiles and pushed away.
Timmerman will get out of a van forward of his switch to U.S. forces on the desert freeway on Friday.
Manu Brabo for NPR
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Earlier within the day, NPR had accompanied the convoy bringing Timmerman from Damascus to southern Syria, close to a U.S. base not removed from the Jordanian border. Over breakfast earlier than the convoy departed, Timmerman spoke with NPR about his time in jail, his Christian religion — and what drove him to Syria.
Consuming olives, he used one in every of his lengthy fingernails to fastidiously scrape all of the flesh from the pit, as he did in jail to keep away from losing any of them.
Timmerman mentioned he didn’t need to give formal interviews or have his voice recorded as a result of it didn’t match with the religious modesty he labored to domesticate. He allowed pictures to be taken. He mentioned he spent a lot of his time in jail meditating, reaching a religious readability that he had by no means had.
“My world modified,” he mentioned.
Deserted Syrian navy automobiles on the highway to the situation the place Timmerman was handed over to U.S. forces.
Manu Brabo for NPR
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Within the Syrian jail, he mentioned, he mirrored on his life earlier than his arrest. He had been a lawyer in Chicago, training household legislation and writing what he described as a coming-of-age novel. He mentioned he doesn’t plan to publish the novel as a result of he’s not eager about business ventures.
“God has since known as me to serve him,” he mentioned.
Timmerman had advised his mom when he left the U.S. that he was going to Hungary. He didn’t need to fear her. As a substitute, he traveled to Beirut by way of the Czech Republic and walked throughout the border into Syria with a smuggler. He was arrested after fasting for 3 days within the Syrian mountains, when he went to collect cherries from an orchard and was noticed by a border guard.
Timmerman (heart) walks with Mouaz Moustafa (left) and an interim Syrian authorities official earlier than his handover to U.S. forces in southern Syria on Friday.
Manu Brabo for NPR
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He says he’s now a greater particular person due to the time he spent in jail.
When NPR contacted Timmerman’s mom, Stacey Collins Gardiner, she mentioned: “Inform him I really like him very, very a lot and I have been crying for him on daily basis. I have been a nervous wreck, it is simply been loopy for me.”
After his launch together with different detainees when the regime of Bashar al-Assad fell, Timmerman was discovered strolling barefoot in a Damascus suburb. The household of a Syrian girl who was additionally freed took him to their house and gave him tea and oranges.
When Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian American activist, discovered that an American had been discovered, he contacted U.S. officers and introduced Travis to Syria’s overseas ministry. There Timmerman had his first bathe in seven months. International ministry workers purchased him trainers and new garments.
Free Syrian Military members escort the convoy taking Timmerman to be handed over to U.S. forces on Friday.
Manu Brabo for NPR
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“The brand new authorities in Damascus is appearing in good religion,” mentioned Moustafa, director of the Syrian Emergency Job Drive. “However this illustrates the significance that there should be official delegations to Damascus.”
The U.S. has no direct diplomatic presence in Syria. Moustafa mentioned he is aware of of at the least six different People lacking in Syria. He believes that others, not imprisoned, have by no means been formally reported as lacking.
“Nobody knew that Travis was in Syria when he went lacking,” he mentioned.
Invoice Chappell contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.
