Two Americans who had been detained by Taliban-installed authorities in Afghanistan were released Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed.
Price announced their release at a press conference and specified that there was no exchange of Afghan prisoners or other persons of interest to the Taliban, The Washington Post reported.
Instead, their release has been a «goodwill gesture,» Washington has argued. «We are providing these two U.S. citizens with all appropriate assistance,» Price said, as reported by the newspaper.
Sources with knowledge of the case have told CNN that one of those released is filmmaker Ivor Shearer, who was arrested along with his Afghan producer, Faizullah Faizbajsh, in August while they were filming in the capital, Kabul.
The Taliban also released American engineer Mark Frerichs, kidnapped two years ago in Afghanistan, in September as part of a prisoner exchange that led to the U.S. releasing a senior member of the fundamentalist group.
The release of these two Americans coincides with the announcement by the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education of a ban on women in universities, an action also condemned by Price and the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
