Travis Timmerman, the missing Missouri man who was unexpectedly found in Syria after he said he crossed into the country to make a "pilgrimage," was flown out by the U.S. military to Jordan, two U.S. defense officials and his family said Friday. Family said they had gone several months without any contact from Timmerman, 29, and then saw him in media coverage Thursday after video emerged from Syria leading some to misidentify him as missing American journalist Austin Tice, 43. Timmerman was flown out of Syria via a U.S. military helicopter. Timmerman told news outlets he had been imprisoned after he had "been reading the scripture a lot" before deciding to cross the mountains from Lebanon into Syria. Only in recent weeks, Rogers said, after Missouri law enforcement was able to get in contact with U.S. Embassy officials in Hungary did the family learn Timmerman was in Lebanon.

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Persons: Travis Timmerman, Family, Austin Tice, Pixie Rogers, Timmerman, Bashar al, Assad, Timmerman's, Rogers Organizations: U.S, Syria's Department, Political Affairs, Embassy Locations: Missouri, Syria, Jordan, Timmerman, Lebanon, Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, Hungary