The Taliban government said Tuesday they had released American citizens from prison in return for an Afghan fighter held in the United States, in a deal brokered by Qatar.
Discussions about the prisoner exchange were confirmed last year, but the swap was announced after outgoing US president Joe Biden handed over to Donald Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday.
“An Afghan fighter Khan Mohammad imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said Mohammad had been serving a life sentence in the state of California after being arrested “almost two decades ago” in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
In July last year, the Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said two American prisoners were being held in custody in Afghanistan and that an exchange had been discussed with the United States.
US media named the Americans as William McKenty and Ryan Corbett, the latter in Taliban custody since 2022.
At least one Afghan prisoner remains in detention at the secretive US prison Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Muhammad Rahim, whose family called for his release in November 2023.
In February last year, two former prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were welcomed home to Afghanistan, more than 20 years after they were arrested.
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