The United States has designated Afghanistan a “state sponsor of wrongful detention,” accusing the unrecognized Taliban government of holding American citizens as bargaining chips.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September that created the designation, which allows Washington to impose sanctions, travel restrictions, and limits on aid on foreign governments. Last month, Iran became the first country to be added to the new blacklist.
“The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on March 9.
Rubio said it was “not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals.”
The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry on March 10 denied it was holding American citizens for ransom.
"Certain individuals have been detained on charges of violating established laws, and in many instances, they have been released in the normal course following the completion of legal procedures," the ministry said in a statement.
Several Americans are being held in Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized power in 2021 after a nearly two-decade insurgency against US-led international forces.
They include Dennis Coyle, a 64-year-old American academic who was detained by the Taliban in January 2025. Mahmood Habibi, another US citizen, was arrested in August 2022. The 37-year-old led the Afghan Aviation Authority under the previous US-backed Afghan government. The charges against both are unclear.
The United States has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Habibi’s release. The Taliban denies holding him, and no verified details about his condition have emerged.
“We just want our brother to be released,” Ahmad Shah Habibi, the detainees brother, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on March 10. “We have some hope in the US government because it has tried from the start to free American detainees. We hope these efforts will lead to my brother’s release.”
Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, 66, was freed in March 2025 during a visit to Kabul by Trump's special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, after more than two years in detention. He was the third American freed by the Taliban since Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025.
The Taliban has arrested dozens of foreign nationals since seizing power in August 2021. Human rights groups have accused the Taliban of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture in custody.
