U.S. Secretary of State Rubio threatens to place a bounty on the head of the Afghan Taliban leader.
He stated on the social media platform X on the 25th: "Just heard that there are more American hostages held by the Taliban than previously reported."
He stated: "If this is true, we must immediately offer a significant bounty to hunt down their top leaders, possibly even higher than the bounty we offered for Osama."
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the U.S. offered a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture or killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The U.S. Congress later authorized the Secretary of State to increase the bounty to $50 million (about 2.1895 million Malaysian ringgit). Osama was killed by U.S. forces in 2011.
Before Trump took office, the U.S. government reached a prisoner exchange agreement with the Taliban government.
According to the agreement reached with the Biden administration, the Taliban released 42-year-old American citizen Cobert and 69-year-old McKenty, who were detained in Afghanistan. Cobert had been living with his family in Afghanistan and was detained by the Taliban in August 2022.
In exchange, the U.S. released Taliban fighter Muhammad, who was serving a life sentence in a California prison. Muhammad was convicted of smuggling heroin and opium into the U.S. and was also accused of attempting to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan with a rocket-propelled grenade.