Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The Taliban has freed an American citizen after more than a year in captivity, amid pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration. Dennis Walter Coyle, 64, who was living in Afghanistan working as a language researcher, according to his family, was arrested in January 2025. In a statement posted online, the Taliban-run Afghan foreign ministry said Coyle’s imprisonment was deemed ‘sufficient’ and that he had been pardoned to mark Eid al-Fitr, the holiday at the end of Ramadan. The US government — which declared Afghanistan a ‘state sponsor of wrongful detention’ just weeks ago — welcomed the release, but called for other US citizens being ‘unjustly’ held to be freed, too. According to a family website, Coyle arrived in Afghanistan in the early 2000s to study Afghan linguistics and help communities develop resources in their native languages.” (03/24/26)