Taliban says it is releasing U.S. citizen Dennis Coyle over a year after he was detained

Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Tuesday announced that it was releasing a U.S. national who had been detained since January 2025.

The foreign ministry said in a statement it agreed to the release after a letter from his family that Dennis Coyle “would be pardoned and released” for Eid.

A Taliban senior official involved in prisoner negotiations told CBS News that the Taliban and U.S. have been holding talks since the last week of February.

Coyle, a 64-year-old academic from Colorado, was taken by force from his Kabul apartment by the Taliban. His abduction came just six days after another American, Ryan Corbett, was released at the start of President Trump’s second term.

Coyle, who spent nearly two decades in Afghanistan conducting language research, was being held by the Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence in near-solitary confinement with no charges filed, according to his family. Coyle’s capture so soon after Corbett’s release illustrates the ongoing risks faced by Americans in Afghanistan, even those with long-standing legal status and deep ties to local communities.

Last June, the U.S. government officially designated Coyle as wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, a status that unlocks select government tools and elevates the priority of efforts to secure his release.

The United States does not recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government and lacks a diplomatic presence in the country, complicating release negotiations that are often conducted by Qatar as an intermediary on behalf of the U.S.

The Biden administration held negotiations with the Taliban to swap Americans detained in Afghanistan for Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, a Guantanamo Bay detainee alleged to have been an associate of Osama bin Laden, but the talks ultimately fell through. U.S. officials proposed releasing Rahim in exchange for George Glezmann, Ryan Corbett and Afghan-American Mahmoud Habibi, who was abducted in 2022. The Taliban countered by seeking Rahim and two others while denying it held Habibi.

The Taliban official who spoke to CBS News on Tuesday said Rahim “should have been freed by now, but unfortunately the American side have not acted on their earlier promises and commitments yet.” 

With the help of Qatari negotiators, Corbett and another American, William McKenty, were released last January in exchange for a Taliban figure who had been imprisoned for life on drug trafficking charges. Glezmann and another American, Faye Hall, were released in March, followed by a fifth American, Amir Amiri, who was freed last September. 

The State Department has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Habibi’s return.