KABUL: The Taliban government said on Tuesday it had released two American citizens from prison in exchange for an Afghan fighter imprisoned in the United States under 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 it over to Donald Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday.
“Khan Mohammad, an Afghan fighter imprisoned in the United States, has been released and repatriated in exchange for American citizens,” the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Mohammad was serving a life sentence in California after being arrested “almost two decades ago” in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, the ministry said.
This was stated by Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson of the Taliban government AFP The two US citizens who were released declined to provide further details on the exchange.
The family of US citizen Ryan Corbett, who was detained by the Taliban in 2022, confirmed he had been released and expressed “very much gratitude” that he was coming home.
“Today our hearts are filled with immense gratitude and praise to God for keeping Ryan alive and bringing him home after the most difficult and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family said on their website. are.”
He thanked the Biden and Trump administrations as well as Qatar for Corbett’s release and called for the release of two other Americans held in Afghanistan.
US media named William McEntee as the second US prisoner to be released, little was known about what he was doing in Afghanistan and his family has requested the US government to keep his case confidential. Who was
The New York Times said Two other Americans are in custody in Afghanistan, former airline mechanic George Glazeman and naturalized American Mahmoud Habibi.
In August 2024, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was receiving information about the disappearance of Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman, two years earlier.
Biden has faced fierce criticism over the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, one of Trump’s presidencies to preside over a deal to end US and NATO involvement in a two-decade war with Taliban insurgents. After more than a year.
After Trump’s election victory in November, the Taliban government said it hoped for a “new chapter” in relations with the United States.
Taliban officials have repeatedly said they want positive relations with every country since returning to power in 2021.
No state has officially recognized their government, restrictions on women’s rights are a sticking point for many countries, including the United States.
The Taliban government on Tuesday described the exchange as “a good example of resolving issues through dialogue and expressed special gratitude to brotherly country Qatar for its effective role in this regard”.
“The Islamic Emirate views positively the actions of the United States that help normalize and expand relations between the two countries,” he added, using the name of Taliban officials for his government.
A 2008 U.S. Department of Justice statement named Muhammad – then 38 – as a member of “an Afghan Taliban cell” and said he was arrested in October 2006 and in December 2008 ” Sentenced to two life sentences for drug and drug terrorism charges.”
It was the first drug terrorism conviction in a US federal court, the statement said.
Dozens of foreigners have been detained by Taliban authorities since the Taliban came to power.
It is unclear how many Afghan nationals are in US custody.
At least one Afghan prisoner is being held at Guantanamo Bay, the secret US prison in Cuba, Mohammad Rahim, whose family has called for his release in November 2023.
In February last year, two former detainees held at Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were repatriated to Afghanistan, 20 years after their capture.
