
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Washington may place significant bounties on senior Taliban leaders, amid reports that the group may be holding more American hostages than previously disclosed.
“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported,” Rubio wrote on social media platform X. “If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on Bin Laden.”
Rubio did not provide details on the number of hostages or further intelligence supporting the claim.
The remarks come after a recent prisoner exchange between the U.S. and the Taliban. Authorities in Kabul announced this week that Khan Mohammad, an Afghan convicted of drug smuggling and extremism in an American court, was released in exchange for two U.S. citizens.
One of the freed Americans was identified as Ryan Corbett, who had been detained since 2022, according to his family. U.S. media reported that the second individual was named William McKenty.
The Taliban, which regained control of Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, continues to face international scrutiny. On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor announced applications for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of crimes against women and girls.
The Taliban dismissed the ICC’s move as baseless. “This misbehavior further destroys the weak credibility of the said structure (ICC),” Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, rejecting the court’s interpretation of human rights as incompatible with the country’s values.
However, Afghan women’s rights groups hailed the ICC decision. The Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Awareness called it a “great historical achievement” and a step toward accountability in Afghanistan.
The United Nations has also criticized the Taliban’s policies, particularly the ongoing ban on education for girls above the age of 12. “It is a tragedy and travesty that millions of Afghan girls have been stripped of their right to education,” said Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to bar women and girls from all levels of education, a policy Otunbayeva condemned as deeply unjust.