March 24 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has assured that “there are several Americans detained by the Taliban” in Afghanistan and has stressed that Washington “is working to achieve their release”, although the fundamentalist group has said that it has no information in this regard.
“There are several Americans detained by the Taliban. We are working to secure their release. The families have asked us to protect their identities and not to speak publicly about their cases,” Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Thus, he has reported that the US authorities “have helped some 975 US citizens who wanted to leave the country” since the withdrawal of international troops in August 2021, when the Taliban took power again after fleeing Kabul. of the then Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani.
“At the moment there are some 175 Americans who have contacted us, some of whom have been there since the withdrawal (of troops) and some who have returned to Afghanistan,” he pointed out, while stressing that “44 of them are ready to go and we are working to get them out”.
In response to Blinken’s words, the Taliban spokesman and Afghan Deputy Minister of Information, Zabihullah Mujahid, has asserted in statements given to the Tolo TV television network that the Afghan authorities have no information on detained US citizens and has said that ” An investigation is necessary.”
