The USA announced the release of two American prisoners in Afghanistan

Two US citizens held by the Taliban regime have been released, the US Department of State announced on Tuesday.

They will be reunited with their families very soon, assured Ned Price, the State Department spokesman.

The Taliban called the release a “goodwill gesture”, according to Mr Price. The US State Department spokesman insisted that it was neither a prisoner exchange nor a release after a ransom was paid.

According to CNN, one of the two Americans is documentary producer Ivor Shearer. The details of the latter are not being released at the request of the family.

Mr Shearer was arrested in mid-August by Taliban intelligence along with his Afghan colleague Faizullah Faizbahs in Kabul while filming, according to figures provided by the non-governmental organization Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

He is said to have been in the Kabul neighborhood where al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed by a US UAV in early August.

According to Mr. Price, the two American citizens are on their way to Doha, the capital of Qatar.

“We are providing the two American citizens with all necessary assistance,” he told the press.

Asked if there are other US citizens being held in Afghanistan, the US State Department spokesman practically confirmed it. “We continue to raise with the Taliban the need to release every American held in Afghanistan, but I’m not in a position to give more specifics,” he said.

The Taliban regime, which retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal of US and other Western troops after 20 years of war, is not recognized by any government at the international level. However, Washington maintains open channels of communication with the de facto government in Kabul.

RES-EMP

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