The United States offered a $5 million reward Tuesday for information that helps find an Afghan-American national it says was abducted in Kabul in 2022.
Mahmood Habibi, who worked for a telecommunications firm, was taken along with his driver and detained by the Taliban government’s intelligence service, the State Department said.
He was seized along with 29 other employees of the company he worked for, the Reuters news agency reported, citing a State Department notice. All but Habibi and one other person have since been released.
“The so-called Taliban government has not yet provided any information about Mr. Habibi’s whereabouts or condition,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
After Mahmood Habibi disappeared, the Taliban denied taking him.
The U.S. considers him as being unjustly held. But the Taliban repeated to CBS News in January that they didn’t have Habibi in custody.
The Taliban government released two other Americans in January, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, for an Afghan detained in the United States in an exchange mediated by Qatar.
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 following the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Bears escape enclosure and eat so much honey they pass out
How climate change is making it more expensive to cool homes
Prosecution, defense rest in Sean “Diddy” Combs case with music mogul not testifying
