Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, two American citizens released by the Taliban as part of a prisoner exchange, arrived in Qatar on Tuesday.
CBS News published a photo of Corbett aboard a plane, reporting that both men had landed in Qatar and were expected to travel onward to the United States.
The prisoner swap marks a rare moment of cooperation between Washington and the Taliban. While details surrounding McKenty’s detention remain unclear, the deal underscores the complex dynamics in U.S.-Taliban relations since the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
Corbett, who had been living in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the U.S.-backed government’s collapse in 2021, was arrested by the Taliban in August 2022 during a business trip. In exchange for their release, the United States freed Khan Mohammed, a senior Taliban figure who had been serving a life sentence in California on charges of drug trafficking and terrorism.
