The Taliban handed two Western hostages over to US forces in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, three years after they were abducted, in a swap for three high-ranking insurgent prisoners that could boost peace talks.
The exchange of American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks for the militants - including Anas Haqqani, brother to the Taliban's deputy leader - was welcomed by both the United States and the insurgents.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the releases "give us hope for the success of intra-Afghan peace negotiations, which the United States stands ready to support."
King and Weeks, both professors at the American University in Kabul, were kidnapped by gunmen wearing military uniforms in the heart of Afghan capital in August 2016.
They later appeared looking haggard in a Taliban hostage video, with the insurgents going on to say that King was in poor health.
On Tuesday morning, they were driven by car to Nawbahar district in Zabul, a southern province bordering Pakistan, an insurgent source told AFP.
They were freed at around 10:00 a.m. and flown out of Zabul on American helicopters, according to a local police source.
The insurgents were released in Doha, where the Taliban maintain a political office, a tweet from their spokesman in the Qatari capital Suhail Shaheen confirmed.
The Taliban's main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the transfer of the Taliban prisoners was "complete, and they have arrived where they were supposed to come".
The swap could herald a breakthrough in stalled efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table with the Kabul government and begin work towards a political settlement ending their 18-year insurgency.
Mujahid described the exchange as "a step forward in good-will and confidence-building measures that can aid the peace process".
The US welcomed the exchange and revealed the two hostages had suffered "significant hardship".
"We pray for the full recovery of both men," said White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019