KABUL: Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government released an American citizen from detention on Sunday, a week after freeing an elderly British couple.<\/p>\n
In a statement the ministry identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington\u2019s special envoy on hostages.<\/p>\n
Boehler made a rare visit to Kabul earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Taliban government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan released an American citizen named Amir Amiri from prison today,\u201d the Foreign Ministry on X, using the official name for government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Afghan government does not view the issues of citizens from a political angle and makes it clear that ways can be found to resolve issues through diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little is known about Amiri\u2019s case, as it has not been widely reported.<\/p>\n
An official with knowledge of the release said Amiri, who is 36, \u201chad been detained in Afghanistan since December 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n
The official added that Amiri would stop briefly in Doha, Qatar for medical checks before continuing back to the United States.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amiri, said he had been \u201cwrongfully detained\u201d in Afghanistan, and thanked Qatar for helping to get him freed.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump \u201chas made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home,\u201d Rubio wrote on X.<\/p>\n
In January two Americans were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the United States.<\/p>\n
Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, was freed after more than two years in detention during a March visit to Kabul by Boehler.<\/p>\n
At least one other US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is being held in Afghanistan. The United States is offering a $5 million reward for information to find him. The Taliban authorities deny any involvement in his 2022 disappearance.<\/p>\n
Just a week ago, Britons Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were released from a Kabul prison after almost eight months in detention. The Taliban authorities did not say why they were detained.<\/p>\n
The couple were arrested in February and first held in a maximum security facility, \u201cthen in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred\u201d to the intelligence services in Kabul, UN experts have said.<\/p>\n
The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programs for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens.<\/p>\n
All the releases have been mediated by Qatar.<\/p>\n
Both the US and the UK, like many other Western nations, warn against all travel to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Russia is the only country to have officially recognized the Taliban government.<\/p>\n
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the group returned to power in August 2021, when most embassies withdrew their diplomatic presence.<\/p>\n
The Taliban government says it wants to have good relations with other countries, notably the United States, despite the 20-year war against US-led forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL: Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government released an American citizen from detention on Sunday, a week after freeing an elderly British couple. In a statement the ministry identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington\u2019s special envoy on hostages. Boehler made a rare visit to Kabul earlier this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87465,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87454\/revisions\/87465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}