Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, said Thursday that he has called for the release of an American citizen captured by Taliban-linked militants in discussions with Taliban leadership as continued violence threatens to scuttle a peace deal to end America's longest-running war.
In a series of tweets from his official account, Khalilzad said he pressed Taliban leaders during an overnight meeting in Doha, Qatar, to secure the release of Mark R. Frerichs, a Navy veteran turned contractor who was abducted by militants in late January.
The tweets by Khalilzad mark the first public statement about the capture from a Trump administration official. It comes on the heels of an investigation by The Associated Press last week that noted there had been no public indications that Frerichs has been part of the peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban. Khalilzad could not be reached for comment.
The State Department also did not respond to a request for comment. American officials believe Frerichs, 57, of Lombard, Illinois, was captured by members of the Haqqani network, a militant group aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan and designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Obama administration in 2012.
While little is known about the circumstances of how Frerichs was abducted, U.S. officials believe he was held for a time in Khost, an eastern province along the border with Pakistan and its so-called tribal regions. The mountainous area historically has been a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
The investigation by the AP revealed how Navy SEALs and the U.S. intelligence community tried to gather information that would lead them to Frerichs' recovery, but the trail went cold.
The Taliban kidnapped my brother in January. In February, the U.S. signed a peace deal with the Taliban. My brother wasn't part of the deal, Charlene Cakora, one of Frerichs' sisters, said in a statement provided to the AP last week. Now we are arranging for the Taliban and Afghan government to exchange thousands of prisoners, why can't we make an American hostage be one of them?