US secures release of Afghan-American Naval reservist held by Taliban

Safi Rauf and his brother Anees Khalil had been in captivity since December

The Biden administration has secured the release of an Afghan-American Naval reservist held by the Taliban for 105 days.

Safi Rauf, 27, a former Afghan refugee, and his brother Anees Khalil, a green card holder, were taken into custody by the Taliban on 18 December.

Mr Rauf, who co-founded the Human First Coalition humanitarian agency, had been helping to evacuate those stranded in Kabul after the Taliban took control of the city last August.

Their release, first reported by CNN, came after more than three months of negotiations between senior figures in the Biden administration and the Afghans.

In a statement released through Human First, Mr Rauf thanked the US British and Qatari Governments, and “countless friends in country, in the region, and all over the world.”

Breaking: The Biden administration on Friday secured the release of Safi Rauf, 27, an Afghan-American Naval reservist who was doing humanitarian work in Kabul and who had been in captivity under the Taliban since December.https://t.co/CTurMqkEKX pic.twitter.com/tb54RgkZ0b

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 1, 2022

“Our understanding is that this exceptionally unfortunate situation arose due to a misunderstanding: we did nothing wrong,” Mr Rauf said.

“I hope we can continue to advocate for and seek ways to serve the Afghan people in this critical time of need in Afghanistan.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the two brothers had been “unjustly detained” in Afghanistan and were in Qatar before being flown back to the US.

“We are grateful for the efforts of all those who worked to secure their release but more work remains,” Mr Price said.

“Unjustly holding Americans captive is always unacceptable, and we will not stop until every American who is being unjustly held against their will is able to hug their families once again.”

The Taliban is still holding another US Naval veteran Mark Frerichs, who was kidnapped in February 2020.

Mr Rauf was born in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan before moving to the US as a teenager.

He served as a linguist for four years with US special forces in Afghanistan.