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Taliban Mark The 1st Anniversary Of US Troops Withdrawal – Kabul
WASHINGTON (AP) — Family members and U.S. officials say an American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years by the Taliban has been released.
They said Monday his release came in an exchange for a convicted Taliban drug lord jailed in the United States. Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran who spent more than a decade in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, was abducted in January 2020 and was believed to have been held since then by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.
Negotiations for his release had centered on a deal that would also involve the release of Bashir Noorzai, a notorious drug lord and member of the Taliban.
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