US threatens Taliban leaders with ‘big bounty’ over detained Americans
In a drastic shift from the old administration, the United States’ new administration has taken a tough stance against Afghanistan’s leadership, threatening the ruling Taliban leaders with placing a “big bounty” on their heads.
Last week, media reports said the Biden administration and the Taliban had successfully accomplished a deal to exchange prisoners.
However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a harsh warning via social media to Taliban leaders on Sunday.
In the early morning post, the new top US diplomat claimed that the Taliban was holding “more American hostages” than reports said.
Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported. If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on Bin Laden.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@secrubio) January 25, 2025
“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported,” Rubio wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Rubio warned that the bounty placed on their heads might be even bigger than the one offered for Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan by US forces in 2011.
“If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden,” he said.
The US had placed a $25 million bounty on the head of bin Laden.
Rubio’s harsh warning to the Taliban leaders comes just days after American prisoners held in Afghanistan were exchanged for an Afghan imprisoned in the US.
Two Americans, Ryan Corbett, and William Wallace McKenty, were swapped with Khan Mohammad, an Afghan inmate serving a life sentence in a federal prison in California.
The Taliban foreign ministry described the Afghan inmate, who was held in the US on alleged drug trafficking and terrorism charges, as a “fighter.”
“An Afghan fighter Khan Mohammed imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” it said in a statement.
The prisoner exchange took place on Monday just before Biden handed over power to Donald Trump.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry had called the prisoner exchange with the Biden administration “a good example of resolving issues through dialogue.”
Two other Americans remain in detention in Afghanistan, former airline mechanic George Glezmann and naturalized American Mahmood Habibi, who is reportedly a businessman.
The Biden administration had previously considered releasing Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who is said to have been close to bin Laden.
Al-Afghani, who has been interrogated and tortured by the CIA, is being held in extrajudicial detention and has not been charged.
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