An American man identifying himself as Travis Timmerman was found near the Syrian capital, Damascus, after being released from a prison as rebels took control of the country.
Timmerman, who said he was arrested upon entering Syria seven months ago, told the BBC's US partner CBS News that he had been trying to get out of the country since his release after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
He said that two armed men smashed his prison door on Monday with a hammer.
“My door was broken down, you woke me up,” he said.
“I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the war could have been more active than it was in the end… Once we got out, there was no resistance, no real fighting.”
The 30-year-old man said that he left prison with a large group of people and was trying to head to Jordan.
He said he “felt some moments of fear” when he left prison, adding that he had since become more anxious about finding a place to sleep.
Timmerman had been missing from Budapest, Hungary, since February, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Thousands of prisoners have been released since the fall of Assad at the weekend.
The Assad regime was notorious for its extremely harsh prisons, with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimating that nearly 60,000 people were tortured and killed in Assad-run prisons.
However, Mr. Timmerman appears to have been treated relatively well, telling CBS: “I feel good. I've been fed and I've been watered, so I feel good.”
He added that he used a mobile phone during his detention and spoke to his family three weeks ago.
