Sen. Patrick Leahy says a student from Middlebury College who has been held by the Syrian government for two weeks has been released to U.S. officials.
Leahy says he received a phone call from the Syrian ambassador to the United States to inform him that Pathik "Tik" Root had been turned over to American authorities.
The U.S. State Department reports that Root is in good condition.
Root is from Ripton and had been in Syria studying Arabic. He was taken into custody on March 18 while shooting photographs of demonstrations.