Two Western hostages held by the Taliban for more than three years have been released in exchange for three high-level Taliban leaders, a U.S. government source confirmed today. American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, professors at the American University of Kabul, were freed in exchange for three Taliban members.
The Western hostages were released Nov. 19 in the Taliban-controlled Zabul Province, a U.S. government source with knowledge of the exchange told the Washington Examiner.
They were swapped for three insurgents, including Anas Haqqani, brother to Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, the source said. “This was a very delicate process, and it went off well,” the U.S. government source said.
King, 63, and Weeks, 50, were kidnapped at gunpoint on Aug. 7, 2016, near the American University in Kabul, where they worked as teachers. The men were snatched off the street around 8 p.m. on a Sunday while driving on Dar-ul-Aman Road. Four assailants wearing uniforms smashed a window to the teachers’ vehicle and pulled them from their car.
Two rescue raids to recover King and Weeks failed in August 2016.
“We had them in our sights, but one rescue was aborted and the second was four hours too late,” the source told the Washington Examiner.
King and Weeks are being taken to a Western medical facility for treatment, the source said.
