U.S. Hostages and Detainees

The Taliban released U.S. academic Dennis Coyle after more than a year in custody — he was seized by the Taliban’s intelligence service from his Kabul home in January 2025 and held without charge in near‑solitary confinement, U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, with photos showing Coyle departing Kabul alongside former U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the UAE ambassador. Rubio, who recently designated Afghanistan a “state sponsor of wrongful detention” under new U.S. powers and publicly pressed for Coyle’s release, thanked the UAE and Qatar for mediation even as Kabul framed the release as an Eid gesture and other Americans remain unaccounted for.