The Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Tuesday that they exchanged U.S. prisoners for an Afghan national named Khan Mohammad after lengthy negotiations facilitated by Qatar.
According to the ministry, Khan Mohammad, who had been serving a life sentence in the United States, was released and has returned to Afghanistan as part of the swap.
The ministry stated that Khan Mohammad was captured by U.S. forces nearly two decades ago in Nangarhar Province. He was exchanged for several U.S. citizens who had been held by the Taliban.
Taliban did not provide details about the Americans involved, but CNN reported that Ryan Corbett and William McEntee were among those freed in the deal.
According to the CNN report, Khan Mohammad was a member of the Taliban convicted in 2008 on charges related to terrorism and narcotics trafficking.
American officials have previously acknowledged that at least seven U.S. citizens, including Ryan Corbett, Gulzman, and Mahmoud Shah Habibi, were being held by the Taliban. The Taliban described the prisoner exchange as a “positive example of resolving issues through dialogue” and suggested that Qatar played a mediating role in the process.
The exchange comes amid ongoing U.S. efforts to secure the release of American detainees held by the Taliban. Earlier reports by Reuters indicated that the previous US administration had been in negotiations to swap U.S. citizens for Mohammad Rahim, a high-profile detainee at Guantánamo Bay and a former aide to Osama bin Laden, along with other prisoners associated with the Taliban.
Ryan Corbett and Mahmoud Habibi were reportedly detained in separate incidents in August 2022, a year after the Taliban seized control of Kabul and during the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Gulzman, who was arrested later that year while visiting Afghanistan as a tourist, also remains in Taliban custody.
Taliban have previously denied detaining Mahmoud Habibi, and one source indicated that they rejected a U.S. proposal to exchange Gulzman and Corbett for Rahim and two other prisoners associated with the Taliban.
