Overview
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded the release of Americans Dennis Coyle and Mahmood Habibi, calling the Taliban’s practices hostage diplomacy.
- The State Department announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Habibi’s location, recovery, and safe return.
- The Taliban denies holding Habibi, while the FBI and Habibi’s family say they believe Taliban forces took him in 2022.
- U.S. officials said travel by Americans to Afghanistan is unsafe and signaled potential restrictions on the use of U.S. passports for travel to the country, a measure currently applied to North Korea.
- Afghanistan is the second country designated under the new authority, following the designation of Iran on February 27.