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18-09-2025
KABUL: United States officials have agreed to a prisoner exchange after a rare talk with the authorities in Kabul, according to the Taliban administration’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage response and Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US special envoy for Afghanistan, met with the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
“Adam Boehler, referring to the issue of detained citizens between Afghanistan and the United States, said that both countries will exchange prisoners,” Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar’s office said after their meeting.
There was no immediate statement from Washington regarding the meeting and Khalilzad did not immediately respond to a phone call from media when asked for comment.
Mahmood Habibi, a naturalized US citizen and businessman who previously worked for a telecommunications company in Kabul, is the highest-profile American detainee, according to Washington. The US is offering a $5 million reward for information to find him, with the Taliban authorities denying any involvement in his 2022 disappearance.
The Taliban has reportedly pressed for the release of Muhammad Rahim, the last Afghan national held at Guantanamo Bay, who has been detained without charge since 2008.
Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, was freed after more than two years in detention during a March visit to Kabul by Boehler.
That deal, mediated by Qatar, was described by the Taliban as a “humanitarian” gesture and a “sign of goodwill”.
Before that, in January 2025, the two sides carried out a prisoner exchange in which US citizens Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty were released in exchange for Khan Mohammad, an Afghan national serving two life sentences in the US.
Both sides also agreed to continue discussions regarding nationals imprisoned in each other’s countries, the statement added.
The Taliban administration, which took power in 2021 after 20 years of US military intervention in Afghanistan, is not recognized by Washington.
Meanwhile, in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan, whole villages have been reduced to piles of stone and mud.
Nearly one week after a devastating earthquake struck Kunar province, residents are mourning their families and figuring out how they can possibly survive, having lost everything.
A magnitude 6.0 tremor struck the remote mountainous region last weekend, killing more than 2,200 people.
“The victims face only two choices, to leave, or die,” journalist Ali Hashem reported from Kunar province, the epicentre of the quake.
Following the earthquake, strong aftershocks were reported on Friday, injuring at least 10, and raising fears of more death and destruction.
Survivor Gul Rahim from Kunar province lost 63 members of his family in the quake, including his five-year-old daughter Fatima.
“We were asleep at home when, at midnight, the earthquake struck. All the houses collapsed and everyone was screaming,” he told media, sitting on the ruins of his home, with several bags of whatever belongings he could recover.
“I managed to get out, but my youngest daughter was trapped inside, crying, ‘Father, get me out of here!” By the time we reached her, she had passed away,” he said, his voice trembling with grief. (Int’l News Desk)
