Taliban and Afghanistan Policy

The Taliban announced it has released U.S. academic Dennis Coyle after more than a year in detention, and he was seen departing Kabul airport alongside former U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the UAE ambassador to Kabul. U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler said Coyle — taken from his Kabul home in January 2025 and held in near-solitary confinement — “committed no crime and was used as leverage,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Coyle is “on his way home” after designating Afghanistan a “state sponsor of wrongful detention.”