KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban confirmed that negotiations with the United States over a potential prisoner exchange, including the release of American citizen Dennis Coyle, are ongoing but have not yet resulted in a final agreement.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, told CBS News that discussions are continuing and expressed hope they would produce “concrete results” leading to the release of prisoners on both sides.
“The Afghan government [Taliban] remains committed to what has been discussed with the United States,” Mujahid said. He added that Afghans currently held in U.S. custody face similar conditions and that their families are enduring similar hardships.
Mujahid confirmed that Dennis Coyle, a 64-year-old academic from Colorado who spent nearly two decades conducting linguistic research in Afghanistan, has been in Taliban custody for more than a year. He was arrested by Taliban intelligence forces from his apartment in Kabul in January 2025. According to his family, Coyle is held in near-solitary confinement in a basement room and must seek permission to use the bathroom. No formal charges have been filed against him.
The US State Department, in a statement to CBS News, called for the Taliban to “immediately release Dennis Coyle and all Americans detained in Afghanistan and end its practice of hostage diplomacy.” The department also reiterated its longstanding travel warning for Americans visiting Afghanistan, noting that the Taliban has detained US citizens for years and that the US government cannot guarantee their safety.
US officials believe at least one other American, a former US Army soldier, is held by the Taliban, while the whereabouts of Afghan-American Mahmood Shah Habibi, missing since 2022, remain disputed. The Taliban has denied holding Habibi, for whom Washington offered a reward of up to $5 million in June 2025.
The Taliban has a history of detaining Westerners to gain political leverage or secure prisoner swaps. In January 2025, it released Americans Ryan Corbett and William McKenty in exchange for Taliban member Khan Mohammad, serving a life sentence in the US for narco-terrorism. In 2022, financier Bashir Noorzai was freed from US custody in return for American engineer Mark Frerichs.
The United States does not recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government and conducts such negotiations indirectly, often through intermediaries in countries such as Qatar.
Western governments, including the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and Germany, continue to advise their citizens against travel to Afghanistan, citing risks of terrorism, kidnapping, and arbitrary detention.
