Taliban release two Western hostages in Afghanistan
The pair’s health had been deteriorating while in the custody of the terrorists Ashraf Ghani
Kandahar, Afghanistan - The Taliban released two Western hostages in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, handing them over to US forces more than three years after they were abducted in Kabul, insurgent sources and police said.
The release of American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, both professors at the American University in Kabul, comes one week after President Ashraf Ghani announced that Afghanistan would free three high-ranking Taliban prisoners in an apparent swap that he hoped would help jump-start peace talks.
“This morning at around 10:00am two American University professors were released in Nawbahar district of Zabul province. They were flown out of Zabul by American helicopters,” a local police source said.
Three Taliban sources in the province also said the hostages had been released, with one saying they have been brought there by car.
“We released the professors and are now expecting the Kabul government and Americans to release our three prisoners as soon as possible,” one of them said.
A diplomatic source in Doha, where the Taliban maintain a political office, said the three insurgent prisoners had arrived there earlier on Tuesday in preparation for a handover, but had not yet been released.
There was no immediate comment from the US Embassy
in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Afghan officials in Kabul said they would release a statement.
The American University in Kabul said it ‘shares the relief of the families’ of the hostages.
‘The AUAF community, our students, faculty and staff, have keenly felt the absence of our two colleagues even as we have continually urged their release over these past three years’, a statement from the university said.
King and Weeks were kidnapped by gunmen wearing mil
itary uniforms in the heart of Kabul in August 2016.
They later appeared looking haggard in a Taliban hostage video, with the insurgents going on to say that King was in poor health.
Ghani said on Tuesday that the pair’s health had been ‘deteriorating while in the custody of the terrorists’.
Ghani had first announced the exchange on November 12, saying the Taliban prisoners held at Bagram prison north of Kabul would be ‘conditionally’ released.
They include Anas Haqqani, who was seized in 2014 and whose older brother Sirajuddin is the deputy Taliban leader and head of the Haqqani network, a notorious Taliban affiliate.
Afghan authorities accuse Anas of being a high-level player in the network. The Taliban has long demanded his release, insisting he is a student.
The other two Taliban prisoners to be released are Haji Mali Khan, believed to be the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, and Abdul Rashid, said to be the brother of Mohammad Nabi Omari, a member of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar.
Ghani had said he hoped the swap would ‘pave the way’ for the start of unofficial direct talks between his government and the Taliban, who have long refused to negotiate with the Kabul administration.
Over the past year Washington and the Taliban have been holding direct talks, seeking an agreement that many hoped would pave the way for US troops to begin leaving Afghanistan and for the militants to start negotiations with Kabul.
They were on the verge of a deal when US President Donald Trump scuttled the talks in September, citing Taliban violence.
Most observers agree that a political settlement is the only way towards lasting peace in Afghanistan, and both the US and the Taliban left the door open for talks to resume.
The prisoner swap could indicate a breakthrough of sorts.