Western professors freed in prisoner swap with Taliban
November 19, 2019
Afghanistan has freed three Taliban figures in exchange for the release of two Western hostages. Officials hope the exchange will help rekindle peace talks with the militant group.
Image: Reuters
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The Taliban released an American and an Australian hostage on Tuesday after the Afghan government freed three imprisoned Taliban officers hours before.
Taliban and police officials reported Tuesday that the group had released hostages American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Week to US forces in southern Afghanistan. The hostages, both university professors, were kidnapped in 2016 outside American University in Kabul where they had taught.
"This morning at around 10 a.m. two American University professors were released in Nawbahar district of Zabul province. They were flown out of Zabul by American helicopters," a local police official said.
Afghanistan released the three militants on Monday night, a Taliban official confirmed. They arrived in Qatar on Tuesday morning. Qatar is home to the Taliban's Afghan leadership.
Among the Taliban officers released is the younger brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy head of the Taliban and leader of the feared Haqqani network, known for its large-scale attacks on Afghan civilians.
Undoing 18 years of war
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the conditional release of the Taliban prisoners last week. In a press conference, he said it had been a difficult decision that he made for the benefit of the country.
Kabul hopes the exchange will help rekindle peace talks with the militant group. Afghanistan has been plagued by an 18-year war between the Taliban and the state that triggered a multinational intervention led by US forces. Thus far the Taliban has refused to negotiate with the government, whom it considers to be an illegitimate "puppet" regime.
The agreement met in the Tuesday exchange calls for negotiations that would end the war and jointly create a plan for the future of postwar Afghanistan.
Endless battle for power in Afghanistan
Seventeen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the war-torn country remains in the grip of Islamist violence. A string of deadly attacks in the last year suggests militants are stronger than ever.
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Fragile security
Repeated attacks in Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 have killed and wounded hundreds of innocent Afghans, and shown the world the fragile and worsening state of security in the conflict-stricken country. The incidents have plunged war-weary Afghan citizens into a state of despair and highlighted the limitations faced by the government in Kabul in ensuring public security.
Image: Reuters/M. Ismail
A long series of attacks
The violent incidents have made Afghanistan once again a staple of international headlines. Outfits like the Taliban and the "Islamic State" (IS) have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Afghan government is under heavy pressure to restore security and take back territory controlled by a number of insurgent groups, including the Taliban and IS.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Hossaini
Spring offensive
In 2018, the Taliban announced the start of their annual spring offensive, dismissing an offer of peace talks by President Ashraf Ghani. The militants, fighting to restore their version of strict Islamic law to Afghanistan, said their campaign was a response to a more aggressive US military strategy adopted in 2017, which aims to force the militants into peace talks.
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Trump's Afghanistan policy
US President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan in 2017, vowing to deploy more troops to train and advise Afghan security forces. Trump also pledged to support Afghan troops in their war against the Taliban and maintain US presence in the country for as long as there was a need for it. In 2019, he reversed course and promised a troop pullout.
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Afghan peace process
Despite President Ghani's offer in February 2018 for peace talks "without preconditions," the Taliban had until 2019 shown no interest, dismissing the peace overtures as a "conspiracy."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/N. Shirzad
Pakistani support
Pakistan has been under pressure from Kabul and Washington to stop offering safe havens to militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies and insists that its influence over the insurgents has been exaggerated. Kabul and Islamabad regularly trade accusations of harboring the other country's militants and the harsh language has underscored the strains between them.
Image: DW/H. Hamraz
Role of the warlords
Apart from the Taliban, Afghan warlords exercise massive influence in the country. Last year, Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul after a 20-year exile to play an active role in Afghan politics. In September 2016, the Afghan government signed a deal with Hekmatyar in the hope that other warlords and militant groups would seek better ties with Kabul.
Image: Reuters/O.Sobhani
An inefficient government
In the midst of an endless battle for power, President Ghani's approval ratings continue to plummet. Rampant corruption in the Afghan government and a long tug-of-war within the US-brokered national unity government has had a negative impact on the government's efforts to eradicate terrorism.
Image: Reuters/K. Pempel
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Hostage situation
Before their release, the whereabouts of the two professors had not been known.
Two videos featuring the captives had surfaced after their 2016 abduction. While they appeared pale and sickly in the first video, released in January 2017, a later video showed them in good health. In the video, they said their captors were treating them well and appealed to their governments to help negotiate their release. It is unclear if they were being forced to speak.
US forces then ran a mission to rescue the pair, but they were not found at the suspected location.
The Taliban appears to have waited for confirmation that their members had been released before freeing the professors.
