US national Faye Hall (pictured below) was released by the Taliban after having been detained in Afghanistan in Feb 2025. Hall is the fourth American released from Afghanistan since Jan 2025. Hall, two Britons, and their Afghan translator were detained earlier this year. Hall may have been detained for using a drone without authorization. In Jan 2025 Ryan Corbett and William McKenty were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the US. George Glezmann was freed after more than two years of detention in a deal brokered by Qatar. The US had lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister, who also heads the powerful Haqqani Network (HQN) blamed for attacks against Afghanistan's former Western-backed government.
"The Pashtuns have a unique and defining tribal code called Pashtunwali or the way of the Pashtun' that distinguishes them from other ethnic groups. It is an unwritten set of values, customs and cultural codes that governs routine life. The code compels Pashtuns to defend their motherland, to grant asylum to fugitives irrespective of their creed or caste, and to offer protection even to his deadly enemy and to wipe out insult with insult": www.natstrat.org