The Taliban government said on Tuesday it had freed two American citizens from prison in exchange for an Afghan fighter detained in the United States, in a deal brokered by Qatar.
Talks about a prisoner swap were confirmed last year, but the swap was announced after outgoing US President Joe Biden handed power to Donald Trump, who took office on Monday.
“An Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, imprisoned in the United States, has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said Mohammed had been serving a life sentence in California after being arrested “almost two decades ago” in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said AFP Two American citizens had been released and declined to provide further details about the exchange.
The family of US citizen Ryan Corbett, detained by the Taliban in 2022, confirmed his release and expressed their “overwhelming gratitude” for his return home.
“Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family said on their site. web.
They thanked the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as Qatar, for Corbett’s freedom, and called for the release of two other Americans still detained in Afghanistan.
US media named William McKenty as the second US detainee released, noting that little was known about what he was doing in Afghanistan and that his family had asked the US government for privacy in his case.
The New York Times He said two other Americans remain detained in Afghanistan, former airline mechanic George Glezmann and naturalized American Mahmood Habibi.
In August 2024, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was seeking information about the disappearance of Afghan-American businessman Habibi two years earlier.
Biden came under heavy criticism for the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, more than a year after Trump presided over an agreement with Taliban insurgents to end US and NATO involvement in the war. two decades.
‘New chapter’
After Trump’s election victory in November, the Taliban government had said it looked forward to a “new chapter” in ties with the United States.
Taliban authorities have repeatedly said they want positive relations with all countries since returning to power in 2021.
No state has officially recognized its government, and restrictions on women’s rights are a key point for many countries, including the United States.
The Taliban government on Tuesday called the exchange “a good example of problem-solving through dialogue, expressing special gratitude for the effective role of the brotherly country of Qatar in this regard.”
“The Islamic Emirate views positively those actions of the United States that contribute to the normalization and expansion of relations between the two countries,” he added, using the name of the Taliban authorities for his government.
A 2008 U.S. Department of Justice statement named Mohammed (38 at the time) as a member of “an Afghan Taliban cell” and said he was arrested in October 2006 and sentenced in December 2008 to “two chains.” “life sentences for drugs and narcoterrorism charges.”
It was the first conviction for narcoterrorism in a US federal court, according to the statement.
Taliban authorities have detained dozens of foreigners since the group’s return to power.
It is unclear how many Afghan citizens are in US custody.
At least one Afghan prisoner remains detained in the secret US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Muhammad Rahim, whose family has called for his release in November 2023.
In February of last year, two former prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were welcomed back to Afghanistan, more than 20 years after their arrest.
