(Reuters) -An Afghan prisoner in U.S. custody was freed in exchange for two American citizens, authorities in Afghanistan said on Tuesday.
The Afghan citizen, Khan Mohammad, had been sentenced to life imprisonment by U.S. courts and was serving his sentence in the state of California, the foreign office said in a statement, adding that he was arrested nearly two decades ago in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar and extradited to the U.S.
It did not identify the U.S. citizens or specify how many had been released. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban administration, however confirmed that two Americans had been released, but declined to identify them.
CNN and the New York Times reported on Sunday that Americans Ryan Corbett and William McKenty were handed over and were on their way home early on Tuesday, exchanged for Afghan Taliban member Khan Mohammed who was convicted in 2008 on narco-terrorism charges.
Two other American captives remain in Afghanistan: George Glezmann, a former airline mechanic, and Mahmood Habibi, a naturalized American, who was seized soon after a U.S. strike in Afghanistan killed Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda, the New York Times said.
The prisoner exchange was years in the making and finally struck in the very last hours of Democratic former President Joe Biden’s time in office before Republican President Donald Trump took over on Monday, CNN reported.
The New York Times reported that Qatar helped negotiate the final deal and provided logistical support for the exchange.
Corbett’s family praised both the Trump and Biden administrations for the exchange but expressed regret that Glezmann and Habibi were also not freed, according to a statement cited in the New York Times.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Sonali Paul and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
