BEIRUT: Syrian
authorities have released a US citizen and he has been handed back to his
family, thanks to the mediation of Lebanon, a Lebanese security official said
on Friday. The security official did not give the name of the released
American, but he was later identified as Sam Goodwin, 30, from St Louis,
Missouri.

"Sam is
healthy and with his family," his parents Thomas and Ann Goodwin said in a
statement. "We are forever indebted to Lebanese General Abbas Ibrahim and
to all others who helped secure the release of our son." The statement
gave no other details, saying, "Right now, we appreciate our privacy as we
reconnect with Sam." A spokeswoman for the family said Goodwin had
travelled to Syria "as part of a personal interest to travel and
experience every country of the world" and was last heard from on May 25.

The Lebanese
security official said the country's security chief Abbas Ibrahim had conducted
the mediation. While not identifying Goodwin as the person released, the
official said it was not Austin Tice, a journalist who disappeared in Syria in
2012. The US State Department said it was aware of reports a US citizen had
been released but could not comment due to privacy considerations. Several US
citizens have been held in Syria since the war began there in 2011, including
people held by jihadist groups such as Islamic State.

The United States
has declined to say who it believes is holding Tice, but has said it believes
he is alive and has sought the help of the Syrian government's close ally
Russia to free him. Last year the family of another American, Majd Kamalmaz,
told the New York Times he had disappeared at a government checkpoint in
Damascus in 2017. Last month Ibrahim flew to Iran to complete the release and
repatriation of Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen with permanent residency in the
United States who was detained there in 2015.

Suicide bomber
kills 6

Meanwhile, a
suicide 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's
war, a monitor said. The bomber, who was riding a motorcycle, blew himself up
at a military checkpoint killing the six soldiers and wounding several other
people, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syria's state
news agency SANA also reported a suicide bombing but said it happened during an
"army raid" that targeted "terrorists", a term used by
authorities to describe rebels and jihadists. SANA said several soldiers were
wounded when "a terrorist detonated an explosive belt during an army
raid". It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast, but
pro-regime forces in Daraa province face explosions and gunfire on a near daily
basis, although they are usually not deadly.

Earlier this
month, an six soldiers were killed in an explosion that targeted an army convoy
near Yadud village, some seven kilometers outside the provincial capital of
Daraa city, according to the Observatory. Russia-backed government forces last
summer retook the province, following a deadly bombardment campaign and
surrender deals that saw part of the population board buses to a northern
opposition holdout. Government institutions have since returned, but army
forces have not deployed in all of the province.

And local anger
has grown after hundreds were detained despite the so-called
"reconciliation deals", and many others forcibly conscripted into
President Bashar Al-Assad's army. In March, dozens of people took part in a
protest after a statue of the president's late father, Hafez al-Assad, was
erected in Daraa to replace one destroyed by protesters at the onset of the
2011 uprising. Syria's eight-year conflict, which evolved from a brutal crackdown
on anti-government protests into a full blown civil war involving regional and
international players, has killed more than 370,000 people.- Agencies