Afghanistan Peace CampaignAfghanistan’s Taliban-led government on Tuesday freed an American researcher, Dennis Walter Coyle, who had been held there for over a year, amid pressure from the Trump administration to release Americans who it says are being held without justification.
Afghanistan’s leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, ordered Mr. Coyle’s release after his family wrote to Mr. Akhundzada asking for a pardon on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan, according to a statement from Afghanistan’s foreign ministry.
Mr. Coyle, 64, who is from Colorado, had been held in Afghanistan since January 2025. He had worked there for over 20 years researching languages, according to his family.
The Coyle family’s website said Mr. Coyle had not been charged with a crime but was being held “in near-solitary conditions.” The State Department in June designated him as wrongfully detained.
Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, traveled to Kabul, the capital, for the release. He called Mr. Coyle’s release “a very positive development” and “good decision” made by the Afghan government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the release was a “positive step by the Taliban” but asked for the release of other U.S. citizens detained in Afghanistan. “The Taliban must end their practice of hostage diplomacy,” Mr. Rubio said in a statement. has faced what its leaders believe is a growing threat of military action from the United States, even as it is enmeshed in a conflict with Pakistan.
Mr. Rubio designated Afghanistan a “state sponsor of wrongful detention” earlier this month, accusing the Taliban government of “kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions.”
Pakistan has been carrying out dozens of airstrikes in Afghanistan, accusing its government of harboring a militant group that has attacked Pakistani security forces and civilians across their shared border. The State Department has said it supports Pakistan’s “right to defend itself” — a stance that Pakistani officials have said that they interpret as a green light to conduct their operations.
Afghanistan has repeatedly denied hosting or supporting militant groups.
U.S. officials say that up to three other Americans are still in Afghanistan.
Mahmood Shah Habibi, a U.S.-Afghan citizen, disappeared in 2022, about a week after an American drone strike in Kabul killed Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s leader and a key plotter of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Mr. Habibi’s whereabouts, and whether he is alive, remain unknown. The Taliban government denies holding Mr. Habibi, despite what the United States says is evidence that he was arrested by the Afghan intelligence services in Kabul.
“The Taliban need to admit they have been holding Mahmood, arrange for his return to his family and move on,” said Eric Lebson, an adviser to the Habibi family and a former U.S. national security official.
The United States also wants answers about Paul Edwin Overby Jr., a Massachusetts author who was last seen in 2014 in Khost, a city in southeastern Afghanistan, while researching a book.
The other detainee is Polynesis Jackson, a former U.S. Army soldier. The circumstances surrounding Mr. Jackson’s detention are unclear.
A spokesman for the Afghan government told The New York Times earlier this year that it was ready to release two U.S. citizens, but that it wanted an Afghan inmate held in Guantánamo Bay to be freed in exchange.
The detainee, Muhammad Rahim, is accused of being a member of Al Qaeda and acting as a courier and interpreter for Osama bin Laden.
“Rahim is a 60-year-old man who has been imprisoned for 18 years without ever being charged with a crime,” James G. Connell, III, an attorney for Mr. Rahim, said in a statement on Tuesday. “He is no threat to anyone, and should be released from Guantánamo.”
Muhammad Ibrahim Rahimi, one of Mr. Rahim’s sons, attended Mr. Coyle’s release at the Kabul airport and stood in silence next to Mr. Khalilzad as Mr. Khalilzad praised the Afghan authorities for Mr. Coyle’s release.
Shortly before Mr. Coyle left Afghan soil as a free man, Mr. Rahimi said he had asked Mr. Khalilzad to deliver a letter to Mr. Trump that read, “We ask you to also release our father so he can return home and make our family happy, just like Dennis Coyle’s family.”
Adam Goldman, Carol Rosenberg, Safiullah Padshah and Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting.