WASHINGTON (AP) — An American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for greater than two years by way of the Taliban has been launched, his circle of relatives stated Monday, as a Taliban drug lord jailed by way of the US was once additionally freed and returned to Kabul.
Mark Frerichs, a Military veteran who had spent greater than a decade in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, was once kidnapped in January 2020 and was once believed to were since then by way of the Taliban-linked Haqqani community.
Negotiations for his free up had targeted on a deal that may additionally contain the discharge of Bashir Noorzai, a infamous drug lord and member of the Taliban who instructed newshounds in Kabul on Monday that he spent 17 years and 6 months in U.S. captivity
The Biden management didn’t in an instant ascertain main points of the prisoner switch, however a sister of Frerichs, who’s from Lombard, Illinois, thanked U.S. executive officers who helped protected her brother’s free up.
“I’m so satisfied to listen to that my brother is secure and on his approach house to us. Our circle of relatives has prayed for this on a daily basis of the greater than 31 months he has been a hostage. We by no means gave up hope that he would live on and are available house safely to us,” stated a observation from the sister, Charlene Cakora.
In Afghanistan, Noorzai instructed newshounds at a press convention that he have been launched from an unspecified U.S. jail and passed over previous within the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in trade for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan whom he didn’t determine.
Different Taliban officers claimed Noorzai was once held on the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, however didn’t be offering say the rest to beef up that declare.
The Taliban-appointed international minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, additionally spoke on the press convention along Noorzai and welcomed the trade, pronouncing it marked the beginning of a “new generation” in U.S.-Taliban members of the family.
Frerichs, kidnapped on Jan. 31, 2020, was once closing observed in a video allotted previous this 12 months, pleading for his free up in order that he may also be reunited together with his circle of relatives, in step with a recording posted by way of The New Yorker mag on the time.
“It is a new bankruptcy between Afghanistan and the US, this will open a brand new door for talks between each nations,” Muttaqi stated on the Kabul presser.
“This act presentations us that each one issues may also be solved via talks and I thank either side’ groups who labored so arduous for this to occur,” Muttaqi added.
Frerichs, of Lombard, Illinois, was once believed to be held by way of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani community, and U.S. officers throughout two presidential administrations had attempted unsuccessfully to get him house. Within the video, which marked the primary time Frerichs was once observed since his abduction, he says it was once filmed closing November.
Movies of hostages are infrequently launched to turn evidence that they’re alive and to facilitate negotiations for a free up, regardless that it was once no longer in an instant transparent if that was once the case right here. The New Yorker stated it got the clip from an unidentified person in Afghanistan.
On the time, the FBI declined to remark at the video’s authenticity, however a sister of Frerichs, Charlene Cakora, issued a observation thanking the Taliban for liberating the video and describing it as “public affirmation of our circle of relatives’s long-held trust that he’s alive after greater than two years in captivity.”
Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August closing 12 months, the Taliban have demanded the US free up Noorzai in trade for Frerichs amid expectancies of such exchanges for U.S. electorate held in Afghanistan.
Then again, there was no public signal of Washington shifting ahead on any form of prisoner business or trade.
The Taliban additionally posted a temporary video Monday on social media appearing Noorzai’s arrival on the Kabul airport the place he was once welcomed by way of most sensible Taliban officers, together with Muttaqi.
On the press convention, Noorzai expressed thankfulness at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a connection with the Taliban — in Kabul.
“I pray for extra luck of the Taliban,” he added. “I’m hoping this trade can result in peace between Afghanistan and The united states, as a result of an American was once launched and I’m additionally unfastened now.”
Faiez reported from Islamabad.