The U.S. has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, together with the interior minister who additionally heads a strong community blamed for bloody assaults towards Afghanistan’s former Western-backed authorities, officers in Kabul mentioned Sunday.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 assault on the Serena Resort in Kabul, which killed six individuals, together with U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla, now not seems on the State Division’s Rewards for Justice web site. The FBI web site on Sunday nonetheless featured a needed poster for him.
Inside Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani mentioned the U.S. authorities had revoked the bounties positioned on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani.
“These three people are two brothers and one paternal cousin,” Qani instructed the Related Press.
The Haqqani community grew into one of many deadliest arms of the Taliban after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and different assaults, together with on the Indian and U.S. embassies, the Afghan presidency, and different main targets. Additionally they have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and different felony exercise.
A International Ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, mentioned the Taliban’s launch of U.S. prisoner George Glezmann on Friday and the removing of bounties confirmed either side had been “shifting past the results of the wartime part and taking constructive steps to pave the best way for progress” in bilateral relations.
“The current developments in Afghanistan-U.S. relations are a great instance of the pragmatic and practical engagement between the 2 governments,” mentioned Jalaly.
One other official, Shafi Azam, hailed the event as the start of normalization in 2025, citing the Taliban’s announcement it was in control of Afghanistan’s embassy in Norway.
For the reason that Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, China has been the most prominent country to accept one of their diplomats. Different nations have accepted de facto Taliban representatives, like Qatar, which has been a key mediator between the U.S. and the Taliban. U.S. envoys have additionally met the Taliban.
The Taliban’s rule, particularly bans affecting women and girls, has triggered widespread condemnation and deepened their worldwide isolation.
Haqqani has previously spoken out towards the Taliban’s decision-making course of, authoritarianism, and alienation of the Afghan inhabitants.
His rehabilitation on the worldwide stage is in distinction to the standing of the reclusive Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada, who could face arrest by the Worldwide Felony Court docket for his persecution of girls.
