An American and a U.S. resident have been freed from detention in Afghanistan, the State Department said on Friday, and one of the pair identified themselves as brothers who were engaged in humanitarian work when the Taliban arrested them.
Saifullah Rauf, the U.S. citizen and U.S. Navy reservist, and Anees Khalil, a U.S. green card-holder, were "unjustly detained" and are in Qatar awaiting travel to the United States, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Their release came against a backdrop of icy U.S.-Taliban relations, fueled by a ban on Afghan girls returning to public secondary schools, nearly eight months after the Islamists seized Kabul as the last U.S. troops departed following 20 years of war.
