The United States has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan's former Western-backed government.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the State Department's Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him.
The lifting of the bounties comes as the Taliban and the United States are engaged in peace talks aimed at ending the 18-year war in Afghanistan. The Taliban has demanded that the United States remove all sanctions and bounties on its leaders as a condition for a peace deal.
The U.S. government has not yet commented on the lifting of the bounties.
5 Comments
Rolihlahla
There are moderate elements within the Taliban who are interested in peace.
Martin L King
Sirajuddin Haqqani is a known terrorist who has admitted to planning attacks on civilians, including Americans. Offering bounties for capturing such individuals is justice.
Rolihlahla
Not all members of the Taliban are extremists or terrorists.
Martin L King
This is a slap in the face to the Afghan government and its security forces who are fighting the Taliban.
G P Floyd Jr
The US has a responsibility to try to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.