BEIRUT: Syrianauthorities have released a US citizen and he has been handed back to hisfamily, thanks to the mediation of Lebanon, a Lebanese security official saidon Friday. The security official did not give the name of the releasedAmerican, but he was later identified as Sam Goodwin, 30, from St Louis,Missouri.
"Sam ishealthy and with his family," his parents Thomas and Ann Goodwin said in astatement. "We are forever indebted to Lebanese General Abbas Ibrahim andto all others who helped secure the release of our son." The statementgave no other details, saying, "Right now, we appreciate our privacy as wereconnect with Sam." A spokeswoman for the family said Goodwin hadtravelled to Syria "as part of a personal interest to travel andexperience every country of the world" and was last heard from on May 25.
The Lebanesesecurity official said the country's security chief Abbas Ibrahim had conductedthe mediation. While not identifying Goodwin as the person released, theofficial said it was not Austin Tice, a journalist who disappeared in Syria in2012. The US State Department said it was aware of reports a US citizen hadbeen released but could not comment due to privacy considerations. Several UScitizens have been held in Syria since the war began there in 2011, includingpeople held by jihadist groups such as Islamic State.
The United Stateshas declined to say who it believes is holding Tice, but has said it believeshe is alive and has sought the help of the Syrian government's close allyRussia to free him. Last year the family of another American, Majd Kamalmaz,told the New York Times he had disappeared at a government checkpoint inDamascus in 2017. Last month Ibrahim flew to Iran to complete the release andrepatriation of Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen with permanent residency in theUnited States who was detained there in 2015.
Suicide bomberkills 6
Meanwhile, asuicide bomber killed six soldiers yesteray in the southern province of Daraa,in a rare deadly attack against the cradle of the uprising that sparked Syria'swar, a monitor said. The bomber, who was riding a motorcycle, blew himself upat a military checkpoint killing the six soldiers and wounding several otherpeople, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syria's statenews agency SANA also reported a suicide bombing but said it happened during an"army raid" that targeted "terrorists", a term used byauthorities to describe rebels and jihadists. SANA said several soldiers werewounded when "a terrorist detonated an explosive belt during an armyraid". It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast, butpro-regime forces in Daraa province face explosions and gunfire on a near dailybasis, although they are usually not deadly.
Earlier thismonth, an six soldiers were killed in an explosion that targeted an army convoynear Yadud village, some seven kilometers outside the provincial capital ofDaraa city, according to the Observatory. Russia-backed government forces lastsummer retook the province, following a deadly bombardment campaign andsurrender deals that saw part of the population board buses to a northernopposition holdout. Government institutions have since returned, but armyforces have not deployed in all of the province.
And local angerhas grown after hundreds were detained despite the so-called"reconciliation deals", and many others forcibly conscripted intoPresident Bashar Al-Assad's army. In March, dozens of people took part in aprotest after a statue of the president's late father, Hafez al-Assad, waserected in Daraa to replace one destroyed by protesters at the onset of the2011 uprising. Syria's eight-year conflict, which evolved from a brutal crackdownon anti-government protests into a full blown civil war involving regional andinternational players, has killed more than 370,000 people.- Agencies