PESHAWAR (The Washington Post)  — U.S. hostage Mark Frerichs, a civilian contractor who was abducted in Kabul over two years ago was released in exchange for an Afghan detainee from Guantánamo Bay, a top Taliban official announced Monday.


The released Guantánamo Bay detainee, Bashir Noorzai (also known as Haji Bashir Noorzai) — a warlord and drug trafficker with ties to the Taliban — was in U.S. custody since 2005 when we was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to life in prison after being lured to the United States.


"We welcome the release of Haji Bashir, an Afghan who spent 17 years in the United States. This will open a new chapter in the bilateral relations between the United States and Afghanistan," acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi announced at a news conference in Kabul broadcast by local television outlets.


"Haji Bashir, who spent 17 and half years in the prison in the United States of America, has been released by the efforts of the Islamic Emirate. We have been persistent in our efforts to free him and now he is with us in his own country," Muttaqi continued.


The two men were swapped at Kabul's international airport Monday, Muttaqi told journalists.


Frerichs's release was discussed during talks between senior U.S. officials and the Taliban leading up to the signing of the U.S. withdrawal agreement in Doha and in the months that followed after the President Joseph Biden administration oversaw the end of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan last year. As the withdrawal neared without a deal securing his' release, his family and advocates feared the United States would lose all leverage to free him.


Since the Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan, the President Joseph Biden administration has not formally recognized the group as the new government and the two sides have repeatedly clashed over the fate of billions of dollars of U.S.-held Afghan national reserves.


Last week, the Taliban condemned a move by the United States to redirect $3.5 billion of the reserves to a fund run in part by Swiss Government officials and Afghan economic experts. The move "without any input from Afghanistan is unacceptable and a violation of international norms," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the announcement.


But Monday's news of the swap could signal improving relations between the two sides. The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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