The U.S. has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, together with the inside minister who additionally heads a robust community blamed for bloody assaults in opposition to Afghanistan’s former Western-backed authorities, officers in Kabul mentioned Sunday.
Sirajuddin Haqqani — who acknowledged planning a January 2008 assault on the Serena Lodge in Kabul that killed six individuals, together with U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla — not seems on the State Division’s Rewards for Justice web site. The FBI web site on Sunday nonetheless featured a wished poster for him.
Inside Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani mentioned the U.S. authorities had revoked the bounties positioned on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani.
“These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin,” Qani advised The Related Press.
The Haqqani community grew into one of many deadliest arms of the Taliban after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and different assaults, together with on the Indian and U.S. embassies, the Afghan presidency and different main targets. In addition they have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and different prison exercise.
A Overseas Ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, mentioned the Taliban’s launch of U.S. prisoner George Glezmann on Friday and the removing of bounties confirmed each side had been “moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress” in bilateral relations. Jalaly famous “pragmatic and realistic engagement between the two governments.”
