The U.S. military has transported out of Syria an American who had disappeared seven months ago into former President Bashar Assad's notorious prison system and was among the thousands released this week by rebels, U.S. officials said Friday.

Travis Timmerman, 29, was flown to Jordan on a U.S. military helicopter, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation.

After insurgents toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad this month, many senior officials and members of his dreaded intelligence and security services appear to have melted away. Activists say some of them have managed to flee the country while others went to hide in their hometowns.

For more than five decades, the Assad family has ruled Syria with an iron grip, locking up those who dared question their power in the country's notorious prisons, where rights groups say inmates were regularly tortured or killed.

Veteran documentarian Alex Gibney, who in a decades-long career has tackled many a thorny issue, wasn't planning a film about Israel — until one day last year, when a stunning leak fell into his hands.

The leak turned out to be more like a deluge.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday in Baghdad that Washington was committed to Iraq's security and would help prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group following Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.

Blinken, speaking after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said he reaffirmed "our commitment to working with Iraq on security and always working for Iraq's sovereignty, to make sure that that is strengthened and preserved".

King Hamad has told Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani that Bahrain is ready to cooperate with the new authorities, the official BNA news agency reported Friday.

It said that in a letter addressed to Jolani using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the monarch said Bahrain, current Arab summit president, was ready to "continue consultations and coordination with Syria".

An American who disappeared seven months ago into former Syrian President Bashar Assad's notorious prison system said early Friday he was released by the "liberators" who arrived in Damascus a day after the longtime ruler fled the capital.

Travis Timmerman called his release a "blessing" when he spoke to The Associated Press from a hotel room in Damascus, where he arrived late Thursday. He was among the thousands of people released from Syria's sprawling military prisons this week after rebels reached Damascus, overthrowing Assad and ending his family's 54-year rule.

With the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, many in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights say they want peace and a return to Syrian control.

Kamil Khater, a barber in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams, said: "We, the Syrians... want peace with everyone, including Israel."

Thousands of Syrians converged at the landmark Umayyad Mosque in Damascus ahead of Friday prayers where the leader of the Islamist rebels who seized power last week is expected, AFP correspondents reported.

Men, women and children flocked to the mosque, an unusual sight in Damascus, with some raising the Syrian independence flag, used by the opposition since the 2011 uprising. Some chanted: "one, one, one, the Syrian people is one," the correspondents said.

Jordan will host a Syria crisis summit over the weekend with participation of foreign ministers from numerous Western and Arab nations, Amman’s foreign ministry announced Thursday.

The Saturday summit "to discuss developments in Syria" will include top diplomats from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, who will also convene with their Turkish and U.S. counterparts, the EU’s foreign policy chief and the U.N. envoy for Syria, the statement said.

The United Nations humanitarian agency said Thursday that more than a million people, mostly women and children, had been newly displaced in Syria since rebels launched an offensive ousting President Bashar al-Assad.

"As of 12 December, 1.1 million people have been newly displaced across the country since the start of the escalation of hostilities on 27 November. The majority are women and children," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.