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Americans freed in Afghanistan-U.S. prisoner swap, Taliban says

By Victoria Bisset Washington Post

Two Americans have been released from Afghanistan, their families said Tuesday, as the Taliban announced a prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry did not name or specify the number of the Americans released in the deal but said in a statement on X that the prisoner exchange took place after “extensive & productive negotiations.” The State and Justice Departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment early Tuesday.

The families of the two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William W. McKenty III, confirmed their release from Afghanistan in separate statements. Corbett, from New York, was detained in Afghanistan over two years ago, while McKenty’s detention had not been previously publicized.

Both Corbett and McKenty’s families thanked the administrations of President Donald Trump, who was inaugurated Monday, and former president Joe Biden in their statements.

The Taliban statement identified the freed Afghan prisoner as Khan Mohammed, who it said was arrested in the Afghan province of Nangahar nearly two decades ago and was serving a life sentence in California.

A Justice Department statement from May 2008 said that a man of the same name, from Nangahar province, was convicted of narcotics distribution and narcoterrorism. According to the statement, Khan Mohammed was a member of a Taliban cell and “part of a Taliban plan to obtain rockets to attack U.S. military and Afghan civilian personnel” at an airfield in Jalalabad, and that he “also sold opium and heroin that he knew was intended for importation into the United States.”

Records from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons early Tuesday suggested that a 55-year-old man named Khan Mohammed was not in its custody.

The Taliban Foreign Ministry said that the “steps taken by the United States of America … aid normalization & expansion of relations between the two countries.”

Both the Taliban Foreign Ministry and the Americans’ families also thanked Qatar for their role in facilitating the releases. Qatar was the location of talks between the United States and the Taliban, which culminated in a peace deal in 2020, and has since late 2021 acted as the United States’ “protecting power” in Afghanistan, charged with handling U.S. consular affairs under the Taliban government.

Negotiations for a prisoner exchange started two years ago and took place “during several rounds of negotiations in Doha,” said an official with knowledge of the release. “Once a deal was in place, the Qataris provided logistical support to ensure their safe exit from Afghanistan to the U.S. via a stop in Doha,” said the official.

Corbett, of New York, and his wife and children lived in Afghanistan for over a decade until the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, according to his family. He was detained in August 2022 while living there on a visa to pay and train staff working in the social enterprise he founded.

In June, a United Nations expert had warned that Corbett’s life was at risk if he wasn’t immediately granted urgent medical care, noting the “utterly inadequate” conditions of his detention.

“Today, 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,” Corbett’s family said Tuesday.

McKenty’s family statement did not provide details about the duration or reason for his detention, but said: “This has been an extremely challenging time for our family, and we are relieved to finally have Bill back where he belongs. As we begin this new chapter, we kindly ask for privacy to allow us to reconnect and heal together.”

At least two other Americans, Mahmood Habibi and George Glezmann, are believed to have been held in Afghanistan since 2022. The Associated Press reported last week that Biden had spoken to their families as U.S. officials tried to negotiate a deal to secure their return in exchange for the release of Muhammad Rahim, one of the last detainees in Guantánamo Bay.

Habibi, an Afghan American businessman, was taken from his vehicle near his home in Kabul in August 2022. “It is believed that Mr. Habibi was taken by Taliban military or security forces and has not been heard from since his disappearance,” the FBI said in August last year, as it appealed for information about his disappearance. The Taliban has denied it is holding Habibi.

According to a House resolution last year calling for his release, Habibi was arrested because “because the Taliban made an assumption” that his employer may have been involved in a U.S. drone strike that killed an al-Qaeda leader.

Glezmann, an airline mechanic, was detained by the Taliban in December 2022 while visiting Afghanistan for five days as a tourist, according to a Senate resolution calling for his release and the James Foley Legacy Foundation, which campaigns for Americans held hostage or wrongly detained abroad.

“It was our hope that Ryan, George and Mahmoud would be returned to their families together, and we cannot imagine the pain that our good fortune will bring them,” Corbett’s family said.

Habibi’s brother, Ahmad, said in a statement Tuesday: “My family and I are grateful that Ryan and William will be reunited with their families. We are confident that the Trump Administration will make a greater effort to bringing home my brother.”

“We have reason to be confident Mahmood is alive and in Taliban custody, despite their hollow denials of holding him,” Ahmad Habibi wrote, adding that his brother “is an innocent man.” In their statement, Ahmad Habibi and Global Reach, a nonprofit working with Habibi’s family, also criticized the Biden administration, suggesting that it did not push hard enough for Habibi’s release.

Under another prisoner swap in 2022, an American contractor held captive by the Taliban was freed in exchange for an Afghan imprisoned on drug trafficking charges in the United States.

The Taliban-run government has been largely cut off from international banking and direct foreign funding since it took power in August 2021 and blames the United States for much of its financial plight. It has repeatedly demanded that the United States release Afghanistan’s Central Bank reserves that were frozen in the wake of the fall of Kabul.

The United States remained a major contributor of financial aid to the Afghan people under Biden, sending money through U.N. agencies and other organizations.

The Taliban has grown increasingly nervous over Trump in recent weeks, as he suggested that U.S. funding would be cut unless the Taliban returns military equipment left behind by American troops in 2021 and made other references to a more confrontational approach with the Taliban.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that a U.S. funding cut would have severe ripple effects, forcing NGOs to lay off female workers and setting back women’s rights even further. “Women and girls in Afghanistan would further suffer, and lives will be lost,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.

While the Taliban has sought to attract foreign tourists, the State Department places Afghanistan under a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory, citing the risk of civil unrest, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping and limited health facilities.