Taliban announce release of two Americans held in Afghanistan in a prisoner exchange

ISLAMABAD — A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking charges, officials said Tuesday.

The deal came as President Joe Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, handed power over to returning President Donald Trump. The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the “normalization” of ties between the U.S. and Afghanistan, but that likely remains a tall order as most countries in the world still don’t recognize the militants’ rule.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul confirmed the swap, saying two unidentified U.S. citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment in 2008.

The family of Ryan Corbett, one American held by the Taliban, confirmed he had been released in a statement. Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the U.S.-backed government, was abducted by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip.

“Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family’s statement said. They thanked both Trump and Biden, as well as many government officials, for their efforts in freeing him.

Corbett’s family also praised the Middle East nation of Qatar for “for their vital role in facilitating Ryan’s release, and for their visits to Ryan as the United States’ Protecting Power in Afghanistan.” Energy-rich Qatar, which hosted negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban over the years, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Before Biden left office, his administration had been trying to work out a deal to free Corbett as well as George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 while traveling through the country. Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company, also went missing in 2022. The Taliban has denied that it has Habibi.

It wasn’t immediately clear if either of the two men was the other released. Officials in Washington did not respond to requests for comment early Tuesday after Trump’s inauguration the day before.

The Taliban called the exchange the result of “long and fruitful negotiations” with the U.S. and said it was a good example of solving problems through dialogue.

“The Islamic Emirate looks positively at the actions of the United States of America that help the normalization and development of relations between the two countries,” it said.

The Taliban has been trying to make inroads in being recognized, in part to escape the economic tailspin caused by its takeover. Billions in international funds were frozen, and tens of thousands of highly skilled Afghans fled the country and took their money with them.