The Taliban say they have exchanged prisoners with the United States, exchanging a detained associate for a former American marine.
This was reported by AFP, citing Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki.
According to him, Marine Mark Frerichs was exchanged for Bashar Nurzai, a field commander and associate of the Taliban, who was sentenced to 17 years in the United States for smuggling heroin. The Taliban say he did not hold any official positions but "provided heavy support" to the movement in the early 1990s.
"Mark Frerichs was handed over to the US today, and Bashar was handed over to us at the Kabul airport," Muttaki said.
The State Department reported that Frerichs was kidnapped in 2020, when he was working in Afghanistan as an engineer of civil infrastructure projects.