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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 U.S. 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 characterized this
to us, as a goodwill gesture," said Price.
The pair was released three months after the Taliban freed Mark
Frerichs, an American engineer, in an exchange for Bashir
Noorzai, a convicted drug smuggler held by the United States
since 2005 and granted clemency by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Earlier this month, Moscow freed Britney Griner, a U.S. women's
basketball star and two-time Olympic gold medalist who was
imprisoned in Russia on drug charges, in exchange for Viktor
Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer jailed in the United
States and known as the "merchant of death."
Asked if there were other Americans being detained in
Afghanistan, Price indicated there were.
"We continue to raise with the Taliban the need for the
immediate release of any of U.S. 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 Taliban
since U.S.-led forces completed a withdrawal from Afghanistan in
August 2021 after 20 years of war as the Western-backed former
government collapsed and the militants seized Kabul.
The Taliban-run government has not been internationally
recognized, with Washington and other foreign governments
decrying the militants' human rights record, especially their
treatment of women.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Daphne Psaledakis; writing by
Jonathan LandayEditing by Alistair Bell)
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