BEIRUT, December 12. /TASS/. US citizen Travis Timmerman, who entered Syria several months ago, has been released from the Ez-Ziabia prison on the southern outskirts of Damascus, the Al Hadath TV channel reported citing sources in law enforcement.

As the American told the channel, he was in Lebanon, and then he decided to illegally enter Syrian territory via a smuggling route. He added that he came to Syria "for spiritual purposes" as a pilgrim.

Earlier, media reported that American reporter Austin Tice, who Timmerman resembles and who disappeared in Syria in 2012, had been found in Ez-Ziabia. Washington accused the Syrian authorities of kidnapping the 30-year-old journalist and several other US citizens. Damascus rejected these accusations and claimed that the US administration itself encouraged its citizens to illegally enter Syria and engage with anti-government armed groups.

On December 9, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller reported that US Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens had come to Beirut as part of the US government's "intensive efforts" to find Tice, who is in Syria, and return him to his homeland.

The journalist reported from Syria for several US publications, including The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Tice, who previously served in the US Marine Corps, vanished in 2012. According to one theory, he was detained by Syrian authorities in the south of Damascus on suspicion of having ties to the CIA.