The Taliban have freed two Americans in detention in Afghanistan, the State Department said on Tuesday, on the same day that the regime faced condemnation for banning women at universities.
\n\u201cThis, we understand, to have been a goodwill gesture on the part of the Taliban. This was not part of any swap of prisoners or detainees. There was no money that exchanged hands,\u201d State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
\nThe two Americans were released to Qatar, which has played a key role supporting US interests in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
\nPrice said that confidentiality rules forbade him from offering more details on the two Americans.
\nUS meida reported that one of them was Ivor Shearer, a filmmaker arrested in August with his Afghan producer \u2014 whose fate is unclear \u2014 while filming the site of a US drone attack that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
\nThe release came on the same day that the Taliban banned women from universities, drawing strong condemnation from the United States, which warned it would impose costs on the regime.
\n\u201cThe irony of them granting us a goodwill gesture on a day where they undertake a gesture like this to the Afghan people, it\u2019s not lost on us.\u201d Price said. \u201cBut it is a question for the Taliban themselves regarding the timing of this.\u201d
\nThe United States has repeatedly condemned the Taliban\u2019s track record since the militants swept back to power last year when President Joe Biden pulled out US troops, leading the two-decade-old Western-backed government to collapse.
\nBut the Biden administration said that the Taliban were largely helpful during the takeover on letting out US citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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