Ned Price: IEA release two Americans detained in Afghanistan

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) on Tuesday released two American nationals in what appeared to be a goodwill gesture, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who indicated that the IEA were holding other US citizens.

Price declined to identify the freed Americans, and he said they were not released as “part of any swap of prisoners or detainees. There was no money that changed hands.”

“We are providing these two US nationals with all appropriate assistance. They will soon be reunited with their loved ones and we are absolutely gratified to see that,” he told a State Department news briefing.

“We understand this, or at least the Taliban (IEA) characterized this to us, as a goodwill gesture,” said Price.

The pair was released three months after the IEA freed Mark Frerichs, an American engineer, in an exchange for Bashir Noorzai, a senior member of the IEA held by the United States since 2005 and granted clemency by US President Joe Biden, Reuters reported.

Asked if there were other Americans being detained in Afghanistan, Price indicated there were.

“We continue to raise with the Taliban (IEA) the need for the immediate release of any of US nationals detained in Afghanistan, but I’m not in a position to offer specifics,” he said.

The United States has held regular contacts with the IEA since US-led forces completed a withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 after 20 years of war as the Western-backed former government collapsed and the IEA seized Kabul.