Marco Rubio, the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State, has stated that the Taliban have taken more American citizens hostage than previously reported.
Rubio remarked, “If this is true, we will have to immediately place a very substantial bounty on their top leaders, possibly even larger than the one we placed on bin Laden.”
On Saturday, 25 January, Rubio took to the social media platform X to reveal reports suggesting the Taliban were holding more American citizens captive than had been disclosed.
On the final day of Joe Biden’s presidency, the Taliban released two American prisoners in exchange for one of their own members. Ryan Corbett and William McEntee were freed in early January and returned to the United States. According to the Taliban, Khan Mohammad, a member of their group, was released from prison following “lengthy and constructive negotiations” with the U.S.
Previously, the State Department had confirmed the detention of three American citizens by the Taliban—George Golzman, Mahmoud Habibi, and Ryan Corbett. However, the Taliban insisted they were holding only two of these individuals, denying that Habibi, an Afghan-American citizen, was in their custody. Despite this, Habibi’s family and U.S. officials maintain that he is being held by the Taliban.
Habibi, formerly the head of Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority, was detained on 10 August 2022 along with 29 other employees of ARX Communication. His arrest came a day after the assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the former leader of al-Qaeda, in Kabul. The Taliban accused ARX Communication of being involved in the operation targeting al-Zawahiri.
Ryan Corbett was detained in July 2022 while travelling in Afghanistan, and George Golzman was arrested by the Taliban on 5 December 2022.
The Secretary of State has not revealed how many Americans remain in Taliban custody.
The FBI had previously offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s Minister of Interior. However, after the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, this reward was doubled.
Osama bin Laden, the former leader of al-Qaeda, was killed in 2011 during a U.S. operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The United States had placed a bounty of approximately $27 million on him.
Marco Rubio has long been one of the fiercest critics of the Taliban in U.S. politics. Following the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in August 2021, Rubio adopted a firm stance against the Taliban and their supporters.
His dissatisfaction with his country’s conciliatory approach toward the Taliban has spanned more than a decade. In 2014, he criticised the exchange of one American prisoner for five Taliban detainees. His opposition intensified after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in 2021.
Rubio is also a vocal advocate for halting U.S. financial aid to Afghanistan. He has introduced legislation calling for the suspension of all humanitarian aid to Afghanistan until assurances are made that such assistance does not reach the Taliban.
Since assuming office, Rubio has suspended U.S. foreign aid to Afghanistan. This decision has ensured that American aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will be withheld for at least three more months.