Trump secures release of American citizen held by Taliban in Afghanistan

The Trump administration announced on Sunday it had secured the release of an American, Amir Amiry, who was wrongfully detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Trump officials said Qatar helped facilitate Amiry’s release alongside the State Department’s bureau for hostage affairs and the National Security Council counterterrorism directorate.

“While this marks an important step forward, additional Americans remain unjustly detained in Afghanistan. President Trump will not rest until all our captive citizens are back home,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Rubio, who also serves as national security advisor to Trump, said the release marked a “significant step by the administration in Kabul” to move forward on releasing other Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan.

Amiry was reportedly detained in Afghanistan in December 2024 but further details on his imprisonment are not immediately available or clear.

The release marks a significant measure of diplomatic engagement between the U.S. and the Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in a lightning offensive in August 2021 amid the U.S. withdrawal from the country by the Biden administration.

The details of Amiry’s release, including what the U.S. provided in exchange for his freedom, were not immediately clear. Some governments have released American citizens on humanitarian grounds or in exchange for humanitarian aid. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have engaged in prisoner swaps to secure the release of Americans unjustly detained abroad.

There are at least three Americans, living and dead, detained in Afghanistan, CNN reported.

This includes Paul Overby, who is believed to be deceasedCNN reported.

Ahmad Habibi, the brother of Mahmood Habibi, a U.S. citizen held by the Taliban for more than three years, told the Associated Press that he and his family were grateful to hear the news about Amiry, and they remained hopeful that Mahmood would also return home.

Mahmood Habibi, an Afghan-American business owner, worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company and vanished in 2022. The FBI and his family have said they believe he was taken by the Taliban, who have denied holding him, the AP reported.

“We are grateful that senior officials at the State Department and National Security Council have repeatedly assured us that any deal they do with the Taliban will be ‘all or nothing’ and they have explicitly assured us that they will not leave my brother behind,” Ahmad Habibi told the AP.

President Trump has put a priority on returning Americans detained abroad and recently signed an executive order to increase pressure and consequences on governments that detain Americans unjustly, labeling them a state sponsor of wrongful detention, for example.

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Author: Laura Kelly
Published on: 2025-09-29 14:59:00
Source: thehill.com