Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president of the United States, has called on the Taliban to release American hostages, warning that Donald Trump has made clear the group must stop detaining US citizens or face consequences.
Writing on X on Friday, Gorka posted a photograph of American detainees and said: “We will not rest until Dennis Coyle and Mahmood Habibi come home.”
The United States’ representative at the UN Security Council has also accused the Taliban of using detainees as leverage. Tammy Bruce said the group must end all forms of hostage-taking and arbitrary detention.
According to Bruce, the Taliban have “openly sought the release of an al-Qaida operative detained in Guantanamo Bay, while paradoxically promising to uphold their counterterrorism commitments”.
The New York Times reported several weeks ago that secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban over the release of American prisoners had reached a deadlock. The report said US officials and Taliban representatives had held confidential talks in recent months on the possible release of American detainees in Afghanistan.
According to the report, the Taliban are seeking the release of Mohammad Rahim, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 and is accused of cooperating with Osama bin Laden within the al-Qaida network.
The United States has repeatedly asked the Taliban to clarify the fate of Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan-American citizen and former head of Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The Taliban have denied detaining him.
Washington has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification of Habibi’s location and his safe return.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Habibi was detained in Afghanistan in 2022, days after the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a claim rejected by the Taliban.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said only Dennis Walter Coyle and Polynesis Jackson are in Taliban custody.
US representatives have travelled to Afghanistan several times over the past year in efforts to secure the release of American prisoners.
